A  GUIDE   TO   PARSIFAL 


PARSIFAL 


MUSIC 

AND 

BOOKS 


MUSIC  —  Folio  Sixe 
FOR  VOICE 
Kundry'8   Narrative     {Ktmdrys    Erzahlung).      Act    II. 

Soprano 6o 

Parsifal's  Triumph  {''Den  heiVgen  Speer  ich  bring  ihn 

euch  zuriick).    Act  II.    Tenor 4C 

FOR  PIANO  SOLO 

Prelude Arranged  by  Otto  Singer  .60 

Parsifal  and  the  Flower  Maidens.    Act  li 

Arranged  by  Otto  Singer  .75 

Good  Friday  Spell.     Act  III. ..  .Arranged  by  Otto  Singer  .60 

Amfortas'  Lament.     Act  III Arranged  by  C.  F.  M.  .40 

Transformation,  and  Closing  Scene.    Act  III 

Arranged  by  Otto  Singer  .75 

Easy  Transcription Arranged  by  F.  Beyer,  Op.  36  .5O 

Transcription Arranged  by  L.  Gobbaerts,  Op.  149  .60 

Potpourri Arranged  by  Henri  Cramer  .75 

FOR  PIANO -FOUR  HANDS 
Prelude  (  Vorspiel) .  Arranged  by  Engelbert  Humperdinck     i.oo 
The  Sacred  Relics  {Das  Heilthuvi).    Act  I 

. , Arranged  by  Engelbert  Humperdinck       .50 

The  Swan  {Der  Schwan).     Act  I 

Arranged  hy  Engelbert  Humperdinck       .50 

Parsifal  and  the  Flower  ^aiAens  {Die  Blumerifnddchen). 

Act  II Arranged  by  Engelbert  Humperdinck     1.25 

Good  Friday  Spell   {Charfreitagszauber).     Act  III 

Arranged  by  Engelbert  Humperdinck     i.oO 

Closing  Scene  {Die  Erlbsung).     Act  III 

Arranged  by  Engelbert  Humperdinck     i.oo 


IN  BOOK  FORM 

Selections  for  Piano  Solo 

Arranged  by  Otto  Singer.    In  paper       .5© 

Selections  for  Piano— Four  Hands 

...Arranged  by  Engelbert  Humperdinck.    In  paper     I.OO 

LIBRETTO.  (With  English  and  German  text,  explanatory 
introduction,  and  the  leading  motives  in  musical  no- 
tation)  In  paper       .25 

A  GUIDE  TO  PARSIFAL.  By  Richard  Aldricpi.  (The 
origins  of  the  drama,  its  story,  and  an  analysis  of  the 
music  with  the   leading   motives   in   notation.    "With 

eight  illustrations  of  scenes  from  the  drama) 

In  cloth,  gilt  top     $1.00 


Tubltjhed  by 

OLIVER  DITSON  COMPANY.   BOSTON 


A  Guide  to  Parsifal 


THE    MUSIC    DRAMA    OF 
RICHARD    WAGNER 


ITS  ORIGIN,  STORT,  AND  MUSIC 


BY 

RICHARD   ALDRICH 


•      J  «     >    '  J ' 


BOSTON 
OLIVER    DITSON    COxMPANY 

NEW  YORK  CHICAGO  PHILADELPHIA 

CHAS.  H.  DITSON  &  CO.       LYON  &  HEALY        J.  E.  DITSON  &  CO. 


Copyright,  MCMIV,  BY  Oliver  Ditson  Company 


[a    guide   to   PARSIFAL  J 


lieRARY 


PREFACE 


This  little  book  can  make  small  claim  to  origi- 
nality. It  is  an  attempt  to  assemble,  for  the  inter- 
est and  guidance  of  listeners  to  ^'Parsifal,"  some 
of  the  most  important  facts  about  the  sources,  the 
origin,  the  characters  and  the  poetical  and  musical 
structure  of  that  work.  The  author  acknowledges 
a  special  indebtedness  to  Maurice  Kufferath's 
book  on  ''Parsifal,"  to  Hans  von  Wolzogen's 
"Guide  through  the  Music  of  Parsifal;"  in  less 
measure  to  H.  E.  Krehbiel's  "Studies  in  the  Wag- 
nerian Drama,"  and  to  W.  J.  Henderson's  biog- 
raphy of  the  master.  For  permission  to  use  por- 
tions of  his  articles  published  in  The  New  York 
Times,  he  desires  also  to  express  his  thanks  to  the 
pubHsher  of  that  journal. 


[vii] 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Introductory vii 

PART   I. 

The  Origins  of  Parsifal i 

The  First  Performance lo 

The  Sources  of  the  Drama 12 

PART   II. 

The  Story  of  Wagner's  Parsifal 21 

The  Characters  of  the  Drama 32 

PART    III. 

The  Music  of  Parsifal 41 

The  Prelude 42 

Act  I 46 

Act  II 56 

Act  III 62 

Bibliography 71 


[ix] 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Scenes  from  Parsifal  as   given  at  the  Metropol- 
itan Opera  House,  New  York. 

F7'om   Photographs  by  Pack  Bros,  of  the  origitml  drawings  made  by 
H.  Burckhardt  &=  Co.,   Vie?iita. 

PAGE 

The  Hall   of   the   Grail.    Act  I.,  Scene  2;   Act  III., 

Scene  i Fro7itispiece 

The  Wood  by  the  Lake.    Act  I.,  Scene  i 11 

On  the  Way  to  the  Temple.     (Transformation  Pano- 
rama) Act  I 19 

Klixgsor's  Castle.    Act  II.,  Scene  i 27 

Klixgsor's  Magic  Garden  in  Bloom.  Act  II.,  Scene  2,  42 
Klingsor's  Magic  Garden  in  Ruins.     (Transformation 

Scene)  Act  II.,  Scene  2 43 

Gurnemanz's  Hut  by  the  Meadow.    Act  III.,  Scene  i,  50 
On  the  way  to  the  Temple.      (Transformation  Pano- 
rama) Act  I II 59 


[xi] 


INTRODUCTORY 


"Parsifal,"  the  last  product  of  Richard  Wag- 
ner's long  creative  activity,  is  differentiated  in 
many  ways  from  any  of  his  previous  works,  and 
from  any  other  lyric  drama.  In  subject  and  in 
style,  and  in  its  general  effect  upon  the  stage,  it 
stands  by  itself.  It  is  a  religious  drama;  Wag- 
ner's designation  of  it  as  ''ein  Blihnenweihfest- 
spiel,"  may  be  translated  as  "a  sacred  stage  fes- 
tival play."  Its  subject  and  the  treatment  of  it 
are  mystical :  there  are  many  religious  elements  in 
it ;  the  philosophical  tendencies  of  its  outlook  upon 
life  are  more  deliberate  and  more  obvious  than 
those  of  its  predecessors.  There  are  ethical  bases 
upon  which  many  of  its  fundamental  ideas  and 
incidents  rest.  There  are  deep  and  complex  sym- 
bolisms conveyed  through  the  characters  and  their 
interplay  in  the  action  of  the  drama.  Its  music 
shows  differences  in  style  and  manner,  as  well  as 
in  the  general  quality  of  its  inspiration,  from  that 
of  any  of  Wagner's  previous  music  dramas  —  in 
which  it  but  repeats  the  history  of  its  predecessors ; 
for  one  of  the  facts  that  most  astounds  the  student 
of  his  works  is  the  progressive  change  that  marks 
them  from  "Rienzi"  to  ''Parsifal."  They  are  all 
unmistakably  Wagner's;  yet  each  one  is  a  differ- 
ent expression  of  the  same  musical  spirit,  and 
the  series  shows  a  steady  advance  in  the  power, 

[xiii] 


Introductory 

complexity,  subtlety,  and  originality  of  the  purely 
musical  part. 

While  the  earlier  works  of  Wagner  have  won  at 
last  a  general  acceptance  from  the  public  and  ac- 
quiescence from  even  the  earlier  inimical  criti- 
cism, debate  has  persisted  over  ^'Parsifal,"  and  its 
individual  characteristics  have  arrayed  against  it 
a  determined  hostility.  This  is  based,  not  on  a 
general  opposition  to  the  principles  of  Wagner's  art 
and  his  methods  as  a  lyrical  dramatist,  —  for  the 
'^ Wagner  question"  is  no  longer  a  living  issue, — 
but  upon  the  nature  of  "Parsifal"  itself;  upon  the 
religious  and  philosophical  ideas  it  embodies ;  upon 
the  moral  grounds  it  sets  forth ;  upon  the  character 
of  its  personages  and  the  ideals  that  animate  them ; 
and  upon  the  alleged  failure  of  the  inspiration  of 
the  music,  the  weakening  and  dwindling  of  the 
fire  of  W^agner's  genius  assumed  to  be  displayed 
in  it.  On  the  other  hand,  "Parsifal"  is  hailed  as 
a  supreme  embodiment  of  the  highest  task  a  lyrical 
dramatist  can  set  himself;  as  a  profound  and  up- 
lifting presentation  of  the  subtlest  and  deepest 
spiritual  truths;  as  a  sublimated  essence  of  the 
composer's  musical  expression  raised  to  its  highest 
power  of  exalted  potency,  and  couched  in  the  most 
highly  developed  and  perfectly  finished  musical 
language  that  W^agner  ever  commanded. 

The  music  of  "Parsifal"  is  indeed  different 
from  the  music  of  the  earlier  dramas,  because  it 
must  be,  because  it  had  something  essentially  dif- 
ferent to  express  and  to  interpret.  And  because  it 
is  not  the  music  of  "Tristan,"  with  its  strains  of 
passion  and  sensuous  longing  and  ecstatic  ardor; 

[xiv] 


Introductory 

or  of  "Das  Rheingold,"  with  its  simple,  trans- 
parent picturing  of  elemental  beings  of  the  upper 
and  the  nether  world;  or  of  "Siegfried,"  showing 
forth  the  imperious  buoyancy  of  the  hero  un- 
touched by  fear  and  the  fresh  and  joyous  outdoor 
nature  in  which  he  lives  —  because  it  is  not  these, 
it  does  not  follow  that  the  music  of  "Parsifal"  is 
limp,  weak,  or  failing  in  inspiration.  It  is  other 
than  these  because  it  is  itself;  a  complete  and 
faithful  embodiment  of  the  dramatic  and  philo- 
sophic premises  and  proceedings  by  which  it  is 
conditioned  and  to"  which  it  is  indissolubly  welded. 
"A  golden  stream  of  tone  it  is,"  as  one  of  its  most 
vehement  opponents  has  styled  it;  an  "almost 
miraculous  musicianship"  has  produced  it;  the 
latest  blossoming  of  a  great  master's  technical 
powers. 

Wagner's  iviusical  style 

Those  who  study  and  listen  to  "Parsifal"  will 
find  it  absolutely  true  to  the  type  of  Wagner's 
latest  development  of  musical  style  as  applied  to 
the  lyric  drama.  In  all  the  reams  of  essays  that 
he  wrote  to  define  and  to  explain  his  system,  a 
few  facts  stand  forth  conspicuously  as  the  founda- 
tion of  that  system.  His  attempt  was,  first,  to 
reverse  the  relation  in  which  music  stood  to  the 
dramatic  element  of  the  conventional  opera,  and 
to  make  the  drama  the  chief  thing,  music  one  of  a 
number  of  subsidiary  elements  employed  to  ex- 
press it;  music  is  only  one  of  the  means  of  expres- 
sion, not  the  principal  end  —  the  others  being 
poetic  diction,  action  and  declamation,  scenic  art 

[xv] 


Introductory 

and  all  the  other  accessories  that  go  to  make  up 
the  stage  picture.  These  are  fused  together  in  a 
complete  organic  union,  working  harmoniously  for 
the  embodiment  of  the  poet's  thought.  As  a  nec- 
essary postulate,  the  libretto  or  text  must  become 
in  itself  a  consistent  and  reasonable  drama  rather 
than  the  amorphous,  often  foolish  and  unintel- 
ligible thing  that  it  is  in  the  conventional,  pre- 
Wagnerian  opera. 

As  a  consequence  of  his  view  of  the  function  of 
music  in  the  lyric  drama,  it  comes  to  take  on  a 
different  form  from  that  which  was  settled  by  the 
almost  uniform  practice  of  his  forerunners.  They 
had  developed  melodic  patterns,  regular  in  form, 
involving  a  certain  balance  and  recurrence  of 
phrase  —  the  characteristics  known  to  everybody 
as  those  of  a  complete  tune  or  air.  Successions  of 
these  tunes,  for  single  voices  or  for  voices  in  com- 
binations of  two  or  more,  or  in  chorus,  became  the 
chief  substance  of  operatic  music,  separated  by 
passages  of  frankly  unmelodious  character,  called 
recitative.  Wagner  found  the  highest  embodi- 
ment of  his  musical  ideal  for  the  lyric  drama 
through  a  wholly  different  method.  Short  melo- 
dic phrases  or  themes  that  were  associated  with 
specific  meanings  and  charged  with  a  certain  emo- 
tional color  he  made  the  foundation  of  his  musical 
structure.  They  were  repeated,  necessarily,  as  the 
set  patterns  or  tunes  of  the  earlier  operatic  writers 
were  repeated;  only,  now,  the  repetitions  and  the 
order  of  their  recurrence,  were  made  to  follow  the 
significance  of  the  text  and  the  course  of  the  action 
and  to  depend  upon  them,  rather  than  upon  the 

[xvi] 


Introductory 

arbitrary  and  preconceived  formulas  of  the  older 
sort.  They  were  combined,  developed,  built  up, 
as  a  substratum  to  the  text,  presented  generally 
in  the  orchestra,  which  has  a  vastly  greater  po- 
tency and  resource  of  expression  than  the  single 
voice  upon  the  stage.  The  voice  was  set  to  de- 
livering the  text  in  a  musical  declamation,  or  kind 
of  endless  melody,  speech  of  heightened  and  in- 
tensified expressiveness,  varying  in  its  melodic  fac- 
ture  according  to  the  nature  of  the  mood  to  be 
expounded.  The  two  were  inseparably  connected 
and  built  into  each  other's  substance,  —  this  vast, 
endless  orchestral  stream  of  musical  interpreta- 
tion or  commentary  and  this  melodious  declama- 
tion; but  the  object  was  always,  not  musical  alone, 
but  dramatic;  that  is,  an  exposition  of  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  text,  and  of  the  dramatic  proceed- 
ings of  which  it  is  the  mouthpiece.  The  cadences 
and  closes  by  which  the  old-fashioned  tunes  are 
divided  from  each  other,  whereby  the  action  is 
chopped  into  fragments,  are  abolished.  The  mu- 
sic is  coterminous  with  each  act  of  the  opera  and 
follows  exactly  the  action  within  the  act. 

A  study  of  the  Wagnerian  dramas  naturally 
suggests  a  study  of  the  themes,  the  leading  motives, 
that  enter  into  the  structure  of  the  music,  that  are 
combined  in  the  great  orchestral  fabric  forming 
the  background  of  the  work.  It  is  true  that  Wag- 
ner's music  is  entirely  intelligible  in  and  of  itself, 
as  a  part  of  the  drama.  It  was  his  contention 
that  a  theatrical  audience  need  not  have  a  special 
knowledge  of  music  to  receive  the  right  impres- 
sion from  a  musical  drama;  still  less  does  it  need 

[xvii] 


Introductory 

an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  special  significance 
of  the  themes  and  melodic  material  out  of  which 
the  music  is  constructed.  The  motives  must,  and 
it  is  the  chief  source  of  the  power  of  Wagner's 
music  dramas  that  they  do,  create  of  themselves 
the  proper  emotional  state  in  the  mind  of  the 
hearer.  None  the  less,  it  is  certain  that  appreci- 
ation and  intimate  understanding  of  the  music, 
and  thus  of  the  unfolding  of  the  drama,  are  in- 
creased by  a  knowledge  and  recognition  of  the 
motives.  Hence  a  large  portion  of  this  book  is 
devoted  to  an  enumeration  of  them  and  a  discus- 
sion of  their  use. 


[xviii] 


A  GUIDE  TO  PARSIFAL 


Part  I. 

THE    ORIGINS    OF   PARSIFAL 

We  have  spoken  of  the  reHgious  character  of 
'' Parsifal."  Its  basis  is  found  in  the  series  of 
mediaeval  legends  relating  to  the  Holy  Grail,  the 
quest  of  the  Grail,  the  knights  and  defenders  of 
the  Grail.  Early  in  his  career  as  a  dramatic  com- 
poser, Wagner  came  to  the  definite  conclusion  — 
a  conclusion  that  had  with  him  the  weight  of  an 
artistic  principle  —  that  the  proper  subjects  for 
treatment  in  the  lyric  drama  were  to  be  found  in 
the  great  mass  of  popular  legends  —  the  myth- 
ology of  the  Teutons.  His  first  important  opera, 
''Rienzi,"  was  an  opera  in  the  old-fashioned  sense, 
and  like  most  others  of  its  kind,  like  Meyerbeer's, 
on  whose  model  it  was  avowedly  based,  it  was  the 
elaboration  of  a  historical  subject.  Before  he  un- 
dertook his  next,  ^^Der  Fliegende  Hollander," 
Wagner  had  convinced  himself  of  the  futility  of 
such  historical  subjects  for  dramatic  treatment, 
especially  the  treatment  to  which  his  gradually 
formulating  views  as  to  dramatic  truth  and  the 
true  function  of  dramatic  music  were  leading  him. 


A  Guide  to  Parsifal 

He  was  beginning  to  recognize  that  in  the  highest 
form  of  musical  drama  the  emotions  of  the  scene 
must  be  the  predominating  force  upon  which 
music  must  be  centred.  But  in  the  historical 
drama  the  details  of  movement  and  all  the  acces- 
sories are  a  hindrance  to  the  broad  and  free  play 
of  these  emotions,  and  hence  to  the  unhindered 
development  of  the  musical  element.  The  em- 
ployment of  mythological  subjects  enables  the 
dramatist  to  simplify  the  story,  to  broaden  its 
lines,  to  make  it  an  expression  of  elemental  traits 
of  humanity,  to  make  its  characters  typical  figures 
of  human  emotions,  passions,  and  aspirations :  em- 
bodiments of  racial  or  national  ideals.  In  his 
essay  ''A  Communication  to  My  Friends,"  Wag- 
ner expresses  his  idea  briefly  thus: 

The  legend,  in  whatever  age  or  nation  it  may  be  placed, 
has  the  advantage  that  it  comprehends  only  the  purely 
human  portion  of  this  age  or  nation,  and  presents  this  por- 
tion in  a  form  pecuUar  to  it,  thoroughly  concentrated  and 
therefore  easily  intelUgible  .  .  .  This  legendary  character 
gives  a  great  advantage  to  the  poetic  arrangement  of  the 
subject  for  the  reason  already  mentioned,  that,  while  the 
simple  process  of  the  action  —  easily  comprehensible  as 
far  as  its  outward  relations  are  concerned  —  renders  un- 
necessary any  painstaking  for  the  purpose  of  explanation 
of  the  course  of  the  story,  the  greatest  possible  portion  of 
the  poem  can  be  devoted  to  the  portrayal  of  the  inner  mo- 
tives of  the  action  —  those  inmost  motives  of  the  soul 
which,  indeed,  the  action  points  out  to  us  as  necessary, 
through  the  fact  that  we  ourselves  feel  in  our  hearts  a 
sympathy  with  them. 

In  his  search  for  legendary  and  mythological 
subjects,  —  the    subjects    that    were    utilized    in 

b] 


The  Origins  of  Parsifal 

"Tannhauser  "  and ''  Lohengrin,"  —  Wagner  came 
upon  the  great  treasury  of  Grail  stories  that  were 
spread  through  all  the  earliest  literatures  of  Europe. 
He  was  deeply  occupied  with  these  legends  in  the 
forties,  as  is  shown  by  ''Lohengrin,"  which  is 
based  upon  a  portion  of  them,  and  also  by  his 
prose  essay,  ''Die  Wibelungen,"  published  in  1848, 
in  which  he  drew  a  comparison  between  the  Grail 
legends  and  those  relating  to  the  Nibelung's 
hoard,  between  several  elements  of  the  two  myths 
which  he  regarded  as  parallel,  and  the  moral  and 
ethical  significance  of  them.  But  nothing  more 
came  of  it  at  the  time.  The  "Nibelung"  dramas, 
"Tristan"  and  "Die  Meistersinger,"  absorbed  his 
attention  in  the  years  immediately  following.  It  is 
not  difficult  to  trace  from  his  own  writings,  his 
letters  and  the  voluminous  reminiscences  of  his 
friends,  the  progress  of  Wagner's  ideas  through 
the  greater  part  of  his  career,  and  the  evolution 
by  which  his  music  dramas  gradually  took  on 
form  and  substance.  The  "Nibelung"  Trilogy 
was  the  product  of  such  an  evolution;  "Parsifal" 
reached  completion  in  its  present  form  after  a 
much  longer  period  of  incubation.  The  first  in- 
ception of  the  drama  may  be  traced  back  to  1855; 
it  was  not  finished  till  1882. 

Schemes  for  dramas  of  ethical  content,  treating 
of  purely  religious  subjects,  presented  themselves 
to  Wagner  early  in  his  career.  In  1849  he  was 
thinking  of  one  that  should  have  for  its  central 
figure  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  He  even  conceived  the 
idea  that  such  an  opera  would  do  for  the  Grand 
Opera  in  Paris,  for  which  Liszt  was  urging  him  to 

[3] 


A  Guide  to   Parsifal 

try  something.  Of  course  this  came  to  nothing; 
but  Wagner  went  on  with  his  sketch  of  his  New 
Testament  drama  and  gave  it  shape  —  the  shape 
it  now  possesses  in  print  in  the  posthumous  frag- 
ment, "Jesus  of  Nazareth."  There  are  motives 
in  its  action  still  traceable  in  ''Parsifal."  There 
was  to  be  the  washing  of  the  Saviour's  feet,  the 
anointing  of  His  head.  Wagner  even  expressed 
the  intention  of  representing  Jesus  as  loved  by 
Mary  Magdalen  and  as  resisting  her. 

While  he  was  working  out  his  first  conception 
of  ''Tristan  und  Isolde"  in  1856,  he  formed  the 
idea  of  another  purely  ethical  drama,  "The  Vic- 
tors." It  was  to  be  Buddhistic  in  its  subject,  and 
was  to  embody  the  Schopenhauerian  philosophy, 
the  desire  for  the  surrender  of  life  and  for  annihi- 
lation, that  is  set  forth  in  "Tristan."  There  are 
traces  of  the  Parsifal  idea  here,  too.  The  hero, 
Ananda,  was  to  be  a  chaste.ascetic,  loved  by  Prak- 
riti  who,  after  experiencing  the  torments  of  love 
without  hope,  renounces  desire  and  is  led  to  re- 
demption in  the  community  of  Buddha.  The  sug- 
gestion was  afterwards  worked  out  in  a  different 
way  in  the  figures  of  Parsifal  and  Kundry. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  Wagner  was  again  led 
back  to  Parsifal  and  the  Grail  legends  through 
"Tristan  und  Isolde,"  which  belongs  to  the  same 
cycle  of  mediaeval  and  earlier  than  mediaeval 
stories.  In  his  first  sketch  for  "Tristan,"  which 
he  made  in  1855,  Wagner  intended  to  follow  one 
of  the  ramifications  of  the  legend  connecting  the 
characters  of  Tristan  and  Parsifal.  He  thought 
of  opposing  to  Tristan,  the  hero  of  passion.  Par- 

[4] 


The  Origins  of  Parsifal 

sifal,  the  hero  of  renunciation.  In  the  third  act, 
after  Tristan  and  Isolde  had  been  reunited  in  the 
castle  at  Kareol,  he  intended  to  make  Parsifal 
appear  in  the  guise  of  a  pilgrim  to  offer  consola- 
tion to  the  anguish  of  the  two  lovers.  He  had 
even  got  so  far  as  to  assign  to  him  a  musical 
theme  representative  of  his  faith,  and  contrasting 
with  the  passionate  plaints  of  Tristan.  The  diffi- 
culty of  the  treatment  caused  him  to  give  up  the 
idea,  and  to  carry  through  the  final  scene  as  we 
now  have  it;  but  the  facts  are  significant  of  the 
deep  penetration  into  his  mind  of  the  Parsifal 
idea,  even  at  this  period  of  his  life. 

The  first  step  toward  ''Parsifal,"  as  it  was  des- 
tined finally  to  shape  itself,  was  taken  by  Wagner 
in  the  spring  of  1857,  when  he  was  enjoying  the 
tranquillity  that  had  so  seldom  come  to  him,  on 
the  little  property  on  the  Lake  of  Geneva,  near 
Zurich,  put  at  his  disposition  by  the  generosity  of 
his  friends  the  Wesendoncks.  On  Good  Friday 
of  that  year,  in  an  hour  of  poetic  reverie,  the  epi- 
sode recounted  by  Chretien  de  Troyes  and  Wolf- 
ram von  Eschenbach,  of  Parsifal's  meeting  with 
the  pilgrims  on  that  holy  day,  came  to  him,  as  he 
himself  recounts.  He  wrote  then  the  lines  in 
which  Gurnemanz  describes  so  beautifully  to  Par- 
sifal, in  the  third  act  of  the  music  drama,  the  spell 
of  Good  Friday,  the  day  of  universal  penitence 
and  universal  pardon: 

Des  Sunders  Reuethranen  sind  es, 
die  heut'  mit  heil'gem  Thau 
betraufet  Flur  und  Au' ; 
der  liess  sie  so  gedeihen. 

[5] 


A  Guide  to  Parsifal 

Nun  freut  sich  alle  Kreatur 
Auf  des  Erlosers  holder  Spur, 
will  ihr  Gebet  ihm  weihen/  .  .  . 

It  was  the  germ  of  the  drama.  A  few  days 
later  Wagner  sketched  its  outlines  around  the 
figure  of  Parsifal,  the  hero  of  renunciation  and  of 
compassion.  This  sketch  contained  not  only  im- 
portant scenes  of  the  drama,  but  musical  motives 
as  well  —  for,  as  has  often  been  pointed  out,  the 
relations  bet^veen  his  musical  and  his  poetic  and 
dramatic  materials  were  so  close  in  Wagner's 
mind  that  the  one  seldom  came  to  him  without 
the  other.  They  were  indissolubly  connected 
with  each  other,  conditioned  upon  each  other,  and 
in  this  fact  is  to  be  found  one  of  the  chief  secrets 
of  Wagner's  power  as  a  creator  of  the  lyric  drama. 

But  "Siegfried"  and  "Tristan"  were  then  en- 
grossing his  time  and  attention.  He  was  in  the 
midst  of  his  long  and  laborious  work  on  the  "Ni- 
belung"  Trilogy,  still  seeking  and  not  yet  finding 
the  conclusive  form  in  which  those  dramas  were 
destiaed  to  evolve  themselves  in  his  mind.  And 
before  he  had  achieved  his  end  he  had  "left  his 
young  Siegfried  under  a  linden  tree,"  as  he  wrote 
to  Liszt,  and  had  betaken  himself  to  the  compo- 
sition of  his  great  love  drama,  in  which,  as  we  have 
just  seen,  the  figure  of  Parsifal  was  to  make  a 

^  The  sad,  repentant  tears  of  sinners 

Have  here  with  holy  rain 

Besprinkled  field  and  plain 
And  made  them  glow  with  beauty. 

All  earthly  creatures  in  delight 

At  the  Redeemer's  trace  so  bright 
Uplift  their  prayers  of  duty. 

[6] 


The  Origins  of  Parsifal 

fleeting  appearance.  But  the  fugitive  vision  of 
that  hero  passed  on  and  out  of  Wagner's  con- 
sciousness. 

Then  came  the  years  of  greatest  doubt  and  un- 
certainty in  Wagner's  stormy  career,  when  he 
seemed  to  have  reached  the  end  of  all  things.  He 
had  left  Zurich  under  a  cloud;  had  gone  through 
the  heart-breaking  experiences  of  the  Paris  fiasco 
with  "Tannhauser"  in  1861;  had  sought  means 
of  livelihood  in  Vienna  in  vain ;  had  attempted  un- 
profitable concert  tours;  was  as  one  hopelessly 
enmired  in  sorrow  and  discouragement,  a  wan- 
derer on  the  face  of  the  earth,  almost  an  outcast, 
a  constant  fugitive  from  his  creditors.  Misunder- 
stood by  the  public,  scorned  and  assailed  by  mu- 
sicians and  critics,  lashed  with  ridicule  by  almost 
the  entire  press  of  Europe,  he  was  at  times  almost 
ready  to  give  up  his  pretensions  to  being  a  com- 
poser. Yet  in  these  gloomy  years  he  wrote  the 
text  of  his  only  comic  opera,  and  began  vigorously 
on  the  music  of  ''Die  Meistersinger,"  under  the 
protection  of  an  old  friend  at  Zurich,  who  had 
given  him  a  haven  from  his  tempest-tossed  wan- 
derings. But  even  there  the  creditors  found  him 
out,  and  he  was  preparing  to  make  another  flight, 
when  his  good  fortune  overtook  him.  It  was  the 
darkest  hour  before  the  dawn.  The  dawn  broke 
in  the  summons  from  the  young  King  Ludwig  II. 
of  Bavaria,  for  him  to  come  to  Munich  and  there 
''complete  the  majestic  labors  of  his  life." 

Those  labors  lay  at  first  in  other  directions  than 
"Parsifal."  There  were  preparations  to  be  made 
for  the  long  deferred,  almost  abandoned  "Nibe- 

[7] 


A  Guide  to  Parsifal 

lung"  dramas,  and  there  was  much  to  be  done  to 
complete  them.  There  was  preparation  for  the 
production  of  ''Tristan  and  Isolde,"  and,  unfor- 
tunately, there  were  malice  and  intrigue  against 
him  to  be  met,  the  change  of  many  plans,  and 
finally  his  retirement,  still  under  the  protection 
and  in  the  favor  of  the  king  from  the  Bavarian 
capital  to  Triebschen  on  Lake  Geneva,  and  finally 
to  the  little  hill  town  of  Bayreuth.  Then  came  the 
long  and  much-troubled  proceedings  for  the  erec- 
tion there  of  the  Festival  Theatre,  and  the  final 
consummation  of  one  of  Wagner's  most  deeply 
cherished  ideals  in  the  performance  of  his  works 
as  he  had  conceived  them  and  wished  them  to  be 
performed. 

But  in  the  meantime  the  royal  patron  had,  of 
course,  been  informed  of  the  inchoate  ''Parsifal" 
that  was  lying  dormant  in  Wagner's  mind.  One 
of  his  most  ardent  wishes  was  to  see  the  comple- 
tion of  this  drama;  and  at  King  Ludwig's  urgent 
solicitation,  Wagner,  by  the  end  of  1864,  very  soon 
after  his  summons  to  Munich,  and  in  the  midst 
of  the  arduous  labors  into  which  he  plunged  there^ 
took  up  again  the  unfinished  sketch  of  the  drama 
and  definitely  completed  its  plan.  It  was  so  far 
developed  that  he  could  read  it  to  private  gather- 
ings of  his  friends  in  1865.  It  underwent  changes, 
however,  before  it  assumed  its  final  shape. 

There  were  years  of  exhausting  activity  and 
anxiety  ahead  —  the  years  of  the  completion  of 
the  Bayreuth  Festival  Theatre  and  the  financial 
uncertainties  as  to  its  outcome.  They  were  tri- 
umphantly overcome  in  the  successful  opening  of 

[8] 


The  Origins  of  Parsifal 

the  house  in  1876;  and  immediately  thereafter 
Wagner  betook  himself  to  the  completion  of  "Par- 
sifal." The  poem  he  finished  early  in  1877,  and 
at  the  end  of  that  year  published  it.  Although 
the  chief  musical  motives  presented  themselves  to 
him  as  he  proceeded  with  the  work,  the  finishing 
of  the  musical  fabric  was  a  matter  of  five  years. 
Its  substance  was  established  in  a  detailed  sketch, 
finished  in  April,  1879.  He  had  already  com- 
pleted and  orchestrated  the  prelude,  and  had  it 
performed  at  his  Bayreuth  home,  Wahnfried,  on 
Christmas  Day,  1878,  by  the  Meiningen  Court 
Orchestra,  which  the  Duke  of  Meiningen  had 
placed  at  his  disposition  to  allow  him  to  give  his 
wife,  Frau  Cosima  Wagner,  a  surprise  upon  the 
anniversary  of  her  birth,  which  falls  upon  that 
day. 

The  second  act  occupied  Wagner  till  the  autumn 
of  the  next  year;  by  the  following  spring  the  third 
act  was  finished  —  all  was,  however,  only  in  the 
form  of  a  detailed  sketch.  The  task  of  the  in- 
strumentation still  remained  to  be  done;  it  was  an 
exhausting  task,  which  occupied  him  for  nearly 
three  years,  from  the  winter  of  1878  to  the  begin- 
ning of  1882.  It  was  much  interrupted  by  fail- 
ing health,  and  the  visits  to  Italy  by  which  he 
sought  to  restore  it.  His  friends  have  put  on 
record  the  extraordinary  fastidiousness  with  which 
he  performed  this  part  of  the  labor.  The  assign- 
ment of  a  theme  or  a  figure  to  such  and  such  an 
instrument,  was  the  subject  of  long  meditation  on 
his  part.  Everything  must  have  a  definite  object, 
a  particular   significance.     How   deliberately   he 

[9] 


A  Guide  to  Parsifal 

worked  is  seen  by  the  long  intervals  that  separ- 
ated the  completion  of  the  several  acts.  Much  of 
the  work  was  done  during  the  visits  to  Italy. 

Progress  on  it  was  also  interrupted  by  the  writ- 
ing of  numerous  essays  and  treatises  on  various 
musical,  aesthetic  and  philosophical  matters  with 
which  he  was  concerned,  swelling  the  already  great 
mass  of  literary  works  that  had  come  from  his 
pen.  The  finishing  touches  were  put  upon  ''Par- 
sifal" in  January,  1882. 

Already,  however,  preparations  for  the  first  per- 
formance had  been  going  forward.  In  Italy  Wag- 
ner had  met  the  Russian  painter,  Paul  Joukowsky, 
with  whom  he  had  worked  out  the  details  of  the 
stage  settings,  the  architectural  style  of  the  Castle 
of  the  Grail,  and  Klingsor's  magic  stronghold,  the 
landscape  effects,  the  Oriental  splendor  of  the 
magic  garden,  the  costumes  and  accessories  of  all 
sorts.  Then  followed  the  preliminary  rehearsals 
with  the  singers,  active  formulation  of  plans  with 
machinists  and  experts  in  stage  management,  all 
the  work  of  preparation  in  detail,  even  before  the 
score  was  finished.  In  six  months  the  work  was 
ready  for  its  production. 

THE  FIRST  PERFORIVIANCE. 

The  first  performance  took  place  on  July  26, 
1882,  in  the  Festival  Theatre  at  Bayreuth,  which 
was  then  reopened  to  the  public  for  the  first  time 
since  the  memorable  production  of  "Der  Ring 
des  Nibelungen,"  in  1876.  This  performance,  and 
the  one  next  following  it  on  July  28,  were  reserved 

[10] 


The  Origins  of  Parsifal 

for  the  members  of  the  Wagner  Societies;  the 
third  and  the  thirteen  succeeding  performances  — 
there  were  sixteen  in  all  —  were  open  to  the  pub- 
lic. The  occasion  was  of  an  importance  to  the 
musical  world  comparable  to  that  of  the  first 
''Nibelung"  performances;  and,  like  those,  the 
first  representations  of  "Parsifal"  were  thronged 
with  musicians,  critics  and  amateurs  from  all  over 
the  world.  After  the  manner  of  Bayreuth,  sev- 
eral of  the  personages  in  the  cast  was  represented 
by  two  or  three  different  artists  in  rotation.  The 
casts  at  the  first  performances  were  as  follows: 

»,,  ^^     ^  (  Reichmann 

(  Fuchs 
TiTUREL Kindermann 

GURNEMANZ |  ^?^^^ 

(  Gudehus 
Parsifal -^  Winkelmann 

(  Jaeger 
Klingsor Hill 

(  Materna 
KuNDRY ■<  Malten 

(  Marianne  Brandt 
Conductors,  Hermann  Levi,  Franz  Fischer. 

The  first  performance  of  ''Parsifal"  outside  of 
Bayreuth  —  disregarding  various  representations 
that  were  given  in  Munich  in  the  strictest  privacy 
before  King  Ludwig  11.  —  was  in  New  York  at 
the  Metropohtan  Opera  House,  on  December  24, 
1903.  A  long  controversy  had  preceded  the  pro- 
duction, after  the  manager,  Heinrich  Conried,  had 
announced  his  plans  in  regard  to  it.  There  was 
an  attempt  to  stop  it  by  legal  means,  on  the  part 


A  Guide  to  Parsifal 

of  the  Wagner  heirs,  which  failed  in  the  courts. 
There  was  discussion  of  the  propriety  of  produc- 
ing the  work  in  New  York  on  the  ground  of  sac- 
rilege in  the  stage  representation  of  a  character  so 
nearly  resembling  Christ  as  Parsifal;  of  certain 
incidents  taken  from  the  life  of  Christ,  as  the 
bathing  and  anointing  of  Parsifal's  feet  by  the  re- 
pentant Kundry,  his  baptizing  of  her,  his  anoint- 
ing by  Gurnemanz,  and  of  the  Eucharistic  feast 
in  the  castle  of  the  Grail.  There  was  question  of 
the  aesthetic  propriety  of  taking  the  work  away 
from  the  special  surroundings  of  Bayreuth  for 
which  Wagner  had  intended  it;  and  of  the  ethical 
propriety  of  appropriating  it,  even  with  the  per- 
mission of  the  courts  and  of  the  copyright  law. 
The  interest  in  the  production,  however,  was  very 
great.  Twelve  performances  were  given  in  this 
season,  the  last  being  on  April  23,  1904;  all  were 
attended  by  enormous  audiences.  The  cast  was 
as  follows: 

Amfortas Van  Rooy 

TiTUREL Journet 

Gurnemanz Blass 

Parsifal Burgstaller 

Klingsor Goritz 

KuNDRY  .• Ternina 

Conductor,  Alfred  Hertz. 

In  three  performances  Miss  Marion  Weed  took 
the  part  of  Kundry  in  place  of  Mme.  Ternina. 

THE    SOURCES  OF    THE    DRAIMA. 

Wagner  and  Tennyson  alone  in  modern  times 
have  found  in  the  legends  of  the  Holy  Grail  ma- 


The  Origins  of   Parsifal 

terials  for  great  works  of  art,  which  they  have  em- 
bodied in  ''Lohengrin"  and  ''Parsifal,"  and  in 
"The  Idylls  of  the  King,"  respectively.  These 
legends  take  us  back  across  the  whole  length  and 
breadth  of  mediaeval  Europe.  If  the  researches 
of  the  comparative  mythologists  have  led  them  to 
the  truth,  the  Grail  legends  recede  still  further,  in 
their  primitive  forms,  into  that  dawn  of  the  Aryan 
civilization  whence  came  all  the  stories  that  have 
entered  deeply  into  the  life  of  the  ruling  races  of 
the  western  world.  Like  so  many  others  that 
antedated  the  beginnings  of  Christianity,  they 
have  been  turned  from  their  original  significance 
to  the  purposes  of  the  Church;  have  taken  on  the 
guise  of  religion  and  have  been  identified  with 
Christianity  as  an  expression  of  the  mediaeval 
spirit  and  attitude  toward  religion. 

The  ramifications  of  the  Grail  legends,  their 
sources  and  the  various  forms  which  they  have  as- 
sumed, make  a  study  by  itself.  So  far  as  Wagner's 
work  is  concerned,  an  examination  of  the  forms 
in  which  the  legends  are  moulded  in  the  mediaeval 
narratives  is  sufficient  to  indicate  the  sources  from 
which  he  derived  his  material,  without  tracing  the 
interesting  literary  peregrinations  and  amalgama- 
tions of  the  several  myths  and  stories  that  were 
finally  merged  together  in  these  legends.  _.. 

Wagner's  treatment  of  the  Grail  legends  is  quitST 
comparable  with  his  treatment  of  the  "Nibelung'^ 
legends.  From  the  vast  detailed  picture  of  the 
"Nibelungenlied"  and  the  Norse  Eddas,  he  ab- 
stracted the  comparatively  broad,  simple  outlines 
of  his  "Nibelung"  dramas.    -In  the  same  way, 


A  Guide  to    Parsifal 

from  the  bewildering  complexities  of  the  Grail 
legends  and  the  stories  of  Arthur,  he  drew  the 
material  of  "Parsifal."  In  both  cases  he  not  only 
wrought  a  closely  knit  and  logical  dramatic  struc- 
ture, in  which  he  delineated  the  workings  of  ele- 
mental forces  in  human  nature,  but  made  them 
the  vehicle  of  a  philosophy  of  life  and  of  a  pro- 
found ethical  teaching.  In  "Parsifal"  he  has 
united  and  condensed  some  of  the  most  signifi- 
cant features  of  the  Grail  stories,  not  hesitating 
to  change,  to  select  and  eliminate,  to  rearrange  and 
to  shift  the  perspective  and  relative  significance  of 
various  personages,  events  and  underlying  ideas; 
to  add  and  to  develop  according  to  his  own  dra- 
matic needs,  yet  preserving  the  general  form  and 
spirit,  and  breathing  into  it  all  the  new  and  higher 

^  significance  that  he  wished  to  express. 

V  Scholars  have  found  that  in  its  original  form 

/  the  Grail  was  a  pagan  talisman,  and  that  it  was 
transformed  into  a  Christian  symbol,  with  a  vast 
number  of  other  ideas,  after  the  conversion  of 
Europe  to  Christianity.  They  find  in  the  ultimate 
form  of  the  Grail  legends  an  amalgamation  of  two 
different  sets  of  stories.  There  were  the  Arthu- 
rian stories,  British,  Celtic  in  origin,  and  developed 
in  a  large  body  of  literature  in  England  in  the 
twelfth  century,  in  which  the  Grail  did  not  at  first 
appear.  The  most  important  of  these  deals  with 
Peredur,  whose  adventures  were  in  many  ways 
identical  with  those  of  Perceval   in  the  French 

,  stories.  In  France  was  developed  the  idea  of  the 
Grail,  at  first  a  vessel  in  which  was  offered  a 

\  draught  of  wisdom  or  of  youth,  and  then,  later,  a 


The  Origins  of  Parsifal 

Christian  symbol.  Of  this  there  were  two  con- 
ceptions; one  that  it  was  a  stone  struck  by  the 
Archangel  Michael  from  the  crown  of  Lucifer 
which  fell  to  earth.  In  the  later  versions  it  is  the 
sacred  vessel  used  by  Christ  at  the  Last  Supper, 
in  which  Joseph  of  Arimathaea  caught  the  blood 
from  the  side  of  the  wounded  Saviour  on  the  cross, 
and  which  thereby  became  a  talisman  of  w^on- 
drous  power.  The  part  it  plays  in  the  stories  is 
various;  but  through  them  all  its  quest  was  one  of 
the  chief  duties  and  highest  ambitions  of  chivalry. 
According  to  one  of  the  legends  it  was  brought 
to  Great  Britain  by  Joseph  of  Arimathaea  and  de- 
posited at  Glastonbury.  This  one  Tennyson  fol- 
lowed in  "The  Idylls  of  the  King;"  and  thus  he 
speaks  of  the  Grail  and  its  lot: 

The  cup,  the  cup  itself,  from  which  our  Lord 
Drank  at  the  last  sad  supper  with  his  own. 
This  from  the  blessed  land  of  Aromat  — 
After  the  day  of  darkness  when  the  dead 
Went  wandering  on  Moriah  —  the  good  saint, 
Arimath^an  Joseph,  journeying,  brought 
To  Glastonbury,  where  the  winter  thorn 
Blossoms  at  Christmas,  mindful  of  our  Lord. 

According  to  another  legend,  the  one  which 
Wagner  adopted,  it  was  given,  with  the  sacred 
spear,  by  angels  into  the  keeping  of  Titurel,  son 
of  the  King  of  Cappadocia.  He  built  a  sanctuary 
for  it  on  Montsalvat  in  Galicia,  Spain,  where  it 
was  guarded  by  a  body  of  knights,  pure  in  w^ord 
and  deed,  whose  lives  were  devoted  to  its  service. 
Among  its  talismanic  properties  is  the  power  of 
feeding  and  sustaining  its   possessors,  as  it  did 

[x5] 


A  Guide  to  Parsifal 

Joseph  of  Arimathaea,  lying  in  prison  for  forty- 
two  years;  and  as  it  did  the  Knights  of  the  Grail. 
Another  is  that  of  prophecy;  another  that  of  choos- 
ing its  defenders;  it  foretells  the  coming  of  the 
knightly  rescuer,  and  appointed  him  to  the  task. 

The  sacred  spear  that  is  closely  connected  with 
it,  is  the  spear  with  which  the  Roman  soldier  Lon- 
ginus  pierced  the  side  of  Christ  as  He  hung  upon 
the  cross.  It  is  an  object  of  equal  adoration  with 
the  Grail  and  also  a  talisman  of  supernatural 
power.     With  the  Grail,  it  came  into  the  keeping 

^Titurel. 

[  Perceval  or  Parzival  is  the  evolution  of  a  figure 
that  goes  back  to  the  misty  antiquity  of  the  race. 
He  is  the  ''Great  Fool"  of  a  series  of  British  and 
Teutonic  folk  tales  —  a  lad  of  noble  lineage  sent 
by  his  widowed  mother  to  save  him  from  his 
wicked  uncle,  to  be  brought  up,  unknown,  by  a 
kitchen  wench  in  a  forest,  in  ignorance  of  his  own 
name,  unlearned  in  the  affairs  of  life.  In  the 
Christianization  of  this  legend  the  qualities  of  this 
Great  Fool' are  given  a  spiritual  significance;  he 
is  guileless,  pure,  as  well  as  simple,  a  fool;  and 
hence  he  is  chosen  for  the  doing  of  divine  deeds; 
his  enlightenment  comes  through  pity.  In  the 
earliest  form  of  the  legend  he  is  not  connected 
with  the  Grail  at  all,  but  was  brought  into  relation 
with  it  in  later  transformations  and  consolidations 
of  the  two  stories. 

There  are  two  principal  literary  versions  of  the 
story  of  the  hero  of  the  Grail  that  have  come 
down  to  us:  one  the  "Conte  del  Graal"  of  Chre- 
tien de  Troyes,  a  French  poet  of  the  twelfth  cen- 

[i6] 


The  Origins  of  Parsifal 

tury,  relating  the  adventures  of  Perceval ;  the  other 
the  ''Parzival"  of  Wolfram  von  Eschenbach,  who 
came  a  little  later  in  the  twelfth  century,  the 
German  minnesinger.  Chretien's  romance  was 
left  unfinished;  as  to  the  indebtedness  to  him  of 
Wolfram  there  has  been  great  dispute.  Wolfram 
speaks  slightingly  of  his  predecessor,  whose  ver- 
sion of  the  legend  he  declares  to  be  distorted,  and 
asserts  that  his  own  version  is  founded  on  that  of 
a  Provencal  poet  named  Kiot,  who  in  turn  ob- 
tained it  from  Arabic  sources.  In  certain  parts 
the  two  differ  greatly  in  detail;  but  they  are  in- 
formed with  the  same  spirit  of  knightly  chivalry. 
Wolfram's,  the  completest  and  most  beautiful  ver- 
sion of  the  legend,  is  the  immediate  source  of 
Wagner's  drama,  though  he  has  also  taken  cer- 
tain elements  from  the  other.  Wolfram's  poem  is 
about  equally  divided  between  the  adventures  of 
Parzival  and  of  Gawain;  and  some  of  the  latter, 
though  not  connected  with  the  Grail  at  all,  have 
been  incorporated  by  Wagner  into  his  work. 
Wolfram  also  describes  the  Grail  as  the  jewel  of 
Lucifer's  crown;  and  the  representation  of  it  as 
the  sacred  vessel  filled  with  the  blood  of  Christ, 
Wagner  has  taken  from  Chretien. 

In  Wolfram's  poem,  Parzival  is  the  son  of  Her- 
zeleide,  a  widow,  who  brings  him  up  in  ignorance 
of  everything  relating  to  chivalry,  that  he  may  be 
spared  the  fate  of  his  father,  the  knight  Gamuret. 
But  one  day  he  sees  three  knights  riding  by,  and 
follows  them,  in  his  simple-minded  ignorance, 
dressed  as  he  is  in  fool's  clothing.  He  reaches 
King  Arthur's  court;  wins  a  suit  of  armor  by  killing 

['7] 


A  Guide  to  Parsifal 

a  knight  who  insults  him;  sets  out  again  and 
comes  to  the  castle  of  an  old  knight,  Gurnemans 
de  Graharz  (the  protot}^e  of  Wagner's  Gurne- 
manz),  who  instructs  him  in  many  things.  Again 
he  goes  forth  and  wanders  from  castle  to  castle; 
he  aids  the  people  of  a  beleaguered  city,  and  mar- 
ries their  queen,  Kundwiramur,  by  whom  he  has 
twin  sons,  one  of  them  being  Lohengrin  —  ''Lo- 
herangrin"  in  the  orthography  of  Wolfram.  He 
sets  out  again  to  seek  his  mother,  of  whose  death 
he  is  ignorant.  His  adventures  now  take  him  to 
a  great  castle,  peopled  with  knights,  where  the 
master.  King  Anfortas,  reclines  suffering  upon  a 
couch.  A  noble  damsel  brings  in  an  object  of 
wondrous  brilliancy,  the  Grail,  which  provides  a 
feast  for  the  company;  a  squire  bears  a  bleeding 
lance  and  Anfortas  presents  Parzival  with  a  mag- 
nificent sword.  The  simple-minded  youth  is  lost 
in  wonder  at  these  marvels;  but  remembering  the 
teachings  of  Gurnemans,  not  to  speak  too  much 
nor  to  ask  too  many  questions,  he  makes  no  in- 
quiry as  to  their  meaning.  Upon  this  question, 
it  seems,  depends  the  recovery  of  Anfortas,  now  in- 
definitely postponed  by  Parzival' s  failure  to  pro- 
pound it.  In  the  morning  he  departs,  but  as  he 
goes,  a  squire  abuses  him  for  his  stupidity  in  not 
asking  the  question  as  to  the  nature  and  function 
of  the  Grail.  He  returns  to  the  court  of  Arthur 
and  is  admitted  to  the  Order  of  the  Round  Table. 
There  Kondrie,  the  sorceress,  in  her  turn  over- 
whelms him  with  reproaches  for  his  stupid  neg- 
lect in  questioning.  Again  he  goes  forth  in  de- 
spair, having  renounced  the  Round  Table  through 

[i8] 


The   Origins  of  Parsifal 

the  conviction  of  his  own  unworthiness.  He  ex- 
periences various  adventures,  —  amonp^  them  the 
meeting  with  the  pilgrims,  who  remind  him  of  the 
day  of  Good  Friday,  the  episode  which  in  1857 
made  so  deep  an  impression  on  Wagner.  He  ar- 
rives, finally,  at  the  cell  of  a  hermit  who  instructs 
him  in  the  story  of  the  Grail  and  the  bleeding 
spear.  Anfortas,  he  is  told,  is  suffering  the  pun- 
ishment of  lust,  having  received  a  wound  from  a 
poisoned  spear  which  cannot  be  cured  until  a 
knight  shall  arrive  and  of  his  own  initiative  ask 
about  the  king's  sufferings;  and  in  the  meantime 
the  sight  of  the  Grail  prolongs  his  agony  by  keep- 
ing him  alive.  Parzival  hears  his  condemnation 
thus  again,  but  bears  his  humiliation  in  silence. 
Then  he  departs,  and  finally  reaches  once  more 
the  Grail  castle.  Asking  this  time  the  fateful 
question,  he  releases  Anfortas  from  his  misery, 
receives  the  crown,  is  joined  by  his  wife  and  his 
twin  sons,  and  rules  gloriously. 

An  episode  of  the  story  as  told  by  Wolfram  that 
has  supplied  Wagner  with  one  of  the  characters 
of  his  drama  must  be  mentioned,  though  it  occu- 
pies no  place  in  the  story  of  Parzival's  adventures. 
It  relates  to  Gawan,  another  of  the  knights  of  the 
Round  Table,  w^ho  has  also  gone  in  quest  of 
the  Grail,  and  who,  in  his  life  of  errantry,  reaches 
the  Castle  of  Perdition,  of  which  Klinschor,  the 
magician,  is  lord.  There  he  has  imprisoned  many 
Christian  knights  and  dames,  whom  Gawan  frees 
by  undergoing  numerous  terrifying  trials.  In  a 
very  different  shape  Wagner  has  utilized  part  of 
the  idea  in  ''Parsifal." 

b9] 


A  Guide  to   Parsifal 

The  narratives  of  Chretien  and  Wolfram  are 
long,  discursive  and  complex.  Only  the  most  sig- 
nificant features  of  the  latter' s  have  been  men- 
tioned here,  those  bearing  most  directly  upon  Wag- 
ner's drama.  How  he  possessed  himself  of  the 
most  pregnant,  the  ones  most  fitted  to  form  the 
cornerstones  of  his  dramatic  structure;  how  he 
exalted  and  transfigured  the  story  and  made  it  the 
vehicle  of  profound  and  beautiful  symbolism  — 
these  things  are  among  the  marvellous  achieve- 
ments of  his  genius.  From  the  multitudinous  de- 
tails of  these  mediaeval  stories  Wagner  has  disen- 
tangled a  few  characters,  a  few  incidents,  from 
which  to  construct  his  music  drama.  He  has  fol- 
lowed the  mediaeval  conception  of  the  nature  and 
function  of  the  Grail,  of  the  sacred  spear  with 
which  Longinus  pierced  the  side  of  the  dying 
Saviour.  But  there  have  been  infinite  changes, 
suppressions,  simplifications,  broadenings,  accen- 
tuations of  one  and  another  trait.  ^Nlost  of  all 
there  has  been  a  great  transformation  in  the  spirit 
and  significance  of  it.  The  romantic  mediaeval 
narrative  has  been  turned  into  a  drama  of  deep 
ethical  import,  representing  a  philosophy.  The 
characters  embody  types  of  humanity,  and  their 
actions  are  eloquent  of  deeper  things  than  those 
that  go  on  in  the  narratives  of  the  mediaeval  story- 
tellers, beautiful  as  these  are. 


[20] 


Part    II. 

THE    STORT  OF    WAGNER'S    PARSIFAL 

Parsifal,  in  Wagner's  drama,  is  the  posthumous 
son  of  Gamuret,  a  knight  slain  in  battle,  and  Her- 
zeleide,  who  brings  him  up  as  a  simpleton  in  the 
woods  and  moorland  wastes,  to  keep  him  from  all 
knowledge  of  knighthood  and  a  fate  like  that  of 
his  father,  slain  in  Arabia.  But  one  day  he  sees 
a  cavalcade  of  men-at-arms  on  horseback,  follows 
them,  and  after  many  wanderings,  comes  to  the 
domain  belonging  to  the  Castle  of  the  Grail.  This, 
according  to  Wagner,  is  in  'Hhe  northern  moun- 
tains of  Gothic  Spain."  It  was  built  by  Titurel 
to  guard  the  holy  vessel  and  the  sacred  spear  con- 
fided to  him  by  divine  messengers.  Waxing  old, 
he  intrusted  their  keeping  to  his  son,  Amfortas. 
On  the  southern  slope  of  the  same  mountains,  fac- 
ing Arabian  Spain,  is  the  magic  castle  of  Klingsor. 
An  aspirant  for  membership  in  the  band  of  un- 
sulHed  Grail  warders  who  dwell  under  Amfortas' s 
rule,  Klingsor  was  rejected  for  his  impurity  of  life, 
and  for  his  self-mutilation  in  the  effort  to  arrive  at 
a  chastity  which  his  strength  of  will  could  not  at- 
tain; whereupon  he  devoted  himself  to  the  damn- 
able arts  of  magic,  seeking  to  corrupt  the  knights 
by  the  seductions  of  his  magic  garden,  thronged 
by  alluring  maidens,  and  to  gain  possession  of  the 
Grail.  Amfortas,  once,  on  an  expedition  to  crush 
this  hostile  and  dangerous  neighbor,  succumbed 


A  Guide  to   Parsifal 

/^o  the  allurements  of  ''a  maid  of  fearful  beauty" 
'     in  that  garden;  and  as  he  lay  in  her  arms,  he  was 
bereft  of  the  sacred  lance  by  Klingsor,  who  with 
,    it  inflicted  upon  him  a  wound  that  never  heals. 
^^  This  maid  is  none  other  than  Kundry,  a  strange 
r  being   leading  a   twofold   life,    sometimes  in   the 
thrall  of  Klingsor's  magic,  of  dazzling  beauty,  then 
serving  as  his  instrument  of  evil;  at  other  times 
she  is  of  wild  and  savage  mien,  repentantly  min- 
istering to  the  Grail  knights,  though  they  fear  her 
\^_and  dislike  her. 

The  first  act  shows  us  a  glade  in  a  shadowy 
forest  surrounding  the  Grail  Castle.  Day  is  dawn- 
ing, and  the  hale  old  knight  Gurnemanz  arouses 
the  esquires  who  are  sleeping  under  the  trees. 
They  hear  the  solemn  call  to  prayer  from  afar, 
and  all  kneel  and  pray.  Amfortas,  the  suffering 
kins:,  is  about  to  be  carried  to  his  bath  in  the  lake 
hard  by,  and  approaches,  reclining  on  a  litter,  at- 
tended by  knights  and  esquires.  Then  comes, 
too,  Kundry,  a  terrible  figure  upon  a  madly  flying 
horse,  to  bring  an  Arabian  balsam  in  the  hope  of 
giving  Amfortas  relief.  The  king  is  borne  in  on 
his  way  to  the  bath,  bewailing  his  unceasing  agony, 
and  longing  for  the  "guileless  fool,  through  pity 
enlightened,"  who  is,  according  to  the  prophecy 
of  the  Grail,  to  give  him  surcease  of  suffering. 
He  passes  on,  after  acknowledging  Kundry' s  ser- 
vice, who  lies  motionless  on  her  face,  "like  a  wild 
beast."  In  a  conversation  with  the  young  es- 
quires which  follows,  Gurnemanz  informs  them  of 
the  significance  of  what  they  have  seen,  and  es- 
tablishes the  posture  of  circumstances  upon  which 


The  Story  of  Wagner's   Parsifal 

the  drama  is  based.  He  tells  of  the  Grail  and  of 
the  sacred  spear  delivered  into  Titurel's  charge 
by  angels;  of  Klingsor's  vain  attempt  to  gain  ad- 
mission to  the  chosen  band  of  pure  Grail  Warders; 
of  his  baleful  machinations  to  corrupt  the  knights 
in  his  magic  garden;  of  Amfortas  and  his  sin. 

Gurnemanz's  discourse  is  interrupted  by  cries 
of  horror  from  the  knights  and  esquires.     A  wild 
swan  has  been  wounded  with  an  arrow.     The 
culprit  is  brought  in,  listens  to  Gurnemanz's  re- 
proaches, then  breaks  his  bow  and  throws  it  away 
in  an  access  of  remorse  and  pity.     ''I  knew  not 
'twas  wrong,"  says  he.     It  is  Parsifal.     Asked  by 
Gurnemanz  who  is  his  father,  who  is  his  mother, 
he  knows  not.     As  to  his  own  name  he  knows 
only  that  once  he  had  many,  but  can  remember 
none  now.     Something  he  must  know,  as  Gurne-^ 
manz  tells  him;  it  proves  to  be  his  mother's  name,  ' 
Herzeleide,  which  he  pronounces,  only  to  learn  from    i 
Kundry  that  she  is  dead  in  his  absence.     He  is    , 
violently  overcome   by   the   tidings,   and   springs    j 
upon  her  in  a  rage.     Gurnemanz  restrains  him;   / 
he  grows  faint,  is  revived  by  water  which  Kundry  / 
runs  to  fetch  from  a  neighboring  spring.     Kun- 
dry feels  herself  overcome  with  ominous  weariness ;  j 
gripped  by  terror,  knowing  that  her  time  has  come  , 
to  serve  the  wicked  Klingsor,  she  staggers  into  a  j 
thicket  and  sinks  down  unconscious.  j 

To  refresh  the  youth,  and  with  an  inkling  that 
he  may  be  the  guileless  fool  long  expected,  Gur- 
nemanz leads  Parsifal  to  the  castle  to  partake  of 
the  sacred  nourishment  furnished  by  the  Grail  to 
all  who  are  pure.     That  he  has  the  shadow  of  a 


A  Guide  to  Parsifal 

hope  that  the  dehverer  may  be  at  hand  is  indi- 
cated by  his  words  to  Parsifal: 

Let  me  to  the  holy  Feast  then  conduct  thee, 

For,  an  thou'rt  pure, 
Surely  the  Grail  will  feed  and  refresh  thee. 

Parsifal  asks,  ^'What  is  the  Grail?"  to  which 
Gurnemanz  replies: 

I  may  not  say; 
But  if  to  serve  it  thou  art  bidden, 
Knowledge  of  it  will  not  be  hidden. 

Andlo!  — 
Methinks  I  know  thee  now  indeed. 

They  set  out  for  the  Grail  Castle.  Their  prog- 
ress is  a  strange  one;  they  only  appear  to  walk, 
and   the   scenery   slowly   moves   past   them.     As 

Parsifal  says: 

1  scarcely  move 

Yet  see  that  far  I've  gone. 

Gurnemanz' s    explanation    is    a    metaphysical 

riddle;  _  ^  . 

]My  son,  thou  see  st 

Here  Space  and  Time  are  one. 

They  pass  through  strange  rocky  galleries,  un- 
der cliffs,  along  mysterious  darkling  pa 'usages. 
They  arrive  finally  at  a  mighty  hall,  lighted  from 
the  dome  high  above.  Chimes  are  heard.  It  is 
the  time  for  the  solemn  unveiling  and  adoration 
of  the  Grail.  There  are  two  long  tables  spread 
with  cups.  The  knights  enter  in  a  solemn  pro- 
cession, each  taking  his  place  at  the  board.  Am- 
fortas  is  brought  in  on  his  litter  and  helped  up  to 
a  raised  couch  in  the  middle,  behind  an  altar. 
Boys    precede    him,    bearing    the    purple-draped 


The  Story  of  Wagner's  Parsifal 

shrine  of  the  Holy  Grail,  which  is  placed  upon 
the  altar  before  him.  The  voice  of  the  aged  Tit- 
urel  is  heard,  calling  upon  his  son  to  do  his  duty 
and  uncover  the  sacred  vessel.  Amfortas  breaks 
out  into  passionate  lamentation,  bewailing  the  an- 
guish caused  him  by  the  ceremonial,  and  beseech- 
ing the  divine  pity.  The  Grail  is  uncovered,  and 
the  hall  is  shrouded  in  a  mysterious  gloom.  Then 
of  a  sudden  a  blinding  ray  of  light  shoots  down 
upon  it,  and  it  glows  with  an  intense  crimson 
lustre.  All  kneel.  The  words  of  the  communion 
service  are  intoned,  and  Amfortas,  with  bright- 
ened mien,  raises  the  Grail,  waves  it  gently  to  and 
fro,  while  all  cast  their  gaze  reverently  upon  it. 
Then  the  gloom  of  the  hall  is  lightened,  the  glow 
of  the  Grail  wanes,  and  the  esquires  distribute  the 
bread  and  wine  with  which  the  power  of  the  holy 
vessel  has  provided  them.  All  sit  down  to  the  re- 
past, including  Gurnemanz,  who  beckons  to  Par- 
sifal to  come  and  partake  of  it.  All  this  time, 
however,  he  has  stood  as  one  dumbfounded,  silent 
and  motionless,  nor  does  he  change  his  mien  as 
Amfortas  is  borne  out  again  upon  the  litter,  and 
the  knights  slowly  file  after  him.  Gurnemanz 
turns  to  him  roughly: 

WTiy  standest  thou  here  ? 
Wist  thou  what  thou  saw'st? 

Parsifal  shakes  his  head,  still  speechless.  "Then 
thou  art  nothing  but  a  fool,"  cries  the  old  man  in 
bitter  disappointment,  and  bids  him  begone: 

Leave  all  our  swans  for  the  future  alone 
And  seek  thyself,  gander,  a  goose ! 

[^5] 


A  Guide  to  Parsifal 

As  Gurnemanz  turns  away,  a  clear  voice  from 
above   is   heard   repeating   the   prophecy  of   the 

By  pity  enlightened 
The  Guileless  Fool. 

In  the  second  act  we  see,  first,  the  magic  labor- 
atory of  Klingsor's  castle,  a  place  of  fantastic  out- 
lines illumined  with  a  dim,  unholy  light.  The 
wizard  is  laying  his  spell  upon  the  unwilling  Kun- 
dry,  summoning  her  to  the  task  of  seducing  Par- 
sifal, who  is  approaching  the  castle  and  whom  he 
sees  in  his  magic  mirror,  laying  about  him  as  he 
comes,  disabling  the  castle  guards  and  mounting 
the  garden  wall.  Change  of  scene:  The  whole 
castle  sinks;  and  there  rises  in  its  place  the  magic 
garden  full  of  tropical  vegetation  and  a  luxurious 
wealth  of  flowers,  a  place  of  allurement,  glowing 
with  light  and  color.  At  the  back,  a  wall,  upon 
which  stands  Parsifal,  gazing  in  astonishment  at 
the  scene  before  him.  A  throng  of  beautiful  dam- 
sels appear  in  haste,  as  if  suddenly  disturbed  from 
sleep.  They  bewail  the  loss  of  their  lovers,  the 
castle  guards,  whom  Parsifal  has  so  quickly  dis- 
posed of,  and  call  upon  the  rosy  youth  to  come 
and  play  with  them.  Parsifal  descends  among 
them  and  listens  to  their  chatter  and  their  en- 
dearments. One  after  another  they  slip  away  and 
return  in  the  guise  of  living  flowers.  Pressing 
around  Parsifal,  they  ply  him  with  their  blandish- 
ments.  At  first  amused,  then  half  angry  at  their 
/  insistence,  he  turns  to  make  his  escape,  when  he 
■'  hears  his  name  called  by  Kundry's  voice: 
''Parsifal  — tarry!" 
V  [26] 


The   Story  of  Wagner's  Parsifal 

It  is  the  first  time  it  has  been  pronounced. 
Parsifal  stops  short:  ''Parsifal?"  he  says;  ''so  once 
my  mother  called  me."  Kundry,  still  invisible, 
beseeches  him  to  stay.  Finally  she  is  seen  through 
the  branches  —  but  how  transformed  in  appear- 
ance! Now  she  is  a  young  woman  of  exquisite 
beauty,  clad  in  a  drapery  of  shimmering  irides- 
cence, of  orchid-like  color,  showing  the  glint  of 
emeralds  and  fiery  opals.  Reclining  upon  a  flow- 
ery couch,  she  is  a  figure  of  wondrous  charm. 
She  calls  him  again  by  his  name:  "Fal  Parsi"  — 
so  Wagner  attempts  to  derive  the  name  "Parsi- 
fal" from  Arabic  words  meaning  "foolish  pure 
one;"  she  tells  him  of  his  mother,  Herzeleide;  of 
his  own  babyhood,  of  her  care  for  him,  of  her 
grief  at  his  departure  and  of  her  death.  Parsifal, 
terribly  affected,  sinks  down  at  Kundry' s  feet 
overpowered,  overwhelmed  with  self-reproach. 
The  enchantress  begins  her  wiles;  wreathing  her 
arm  about  his  neck  she  comforts  him;  tells  him 
that  confession  is  absolution:  "Transgression  when 
owned  is  quickly  ended."  She  bids  him  find  con- 
solation in  love  —  such  love  as  his  father  Gam- 
uret  had  for  Herzeleide.  She  bows  her  head  over 
his  and  presses  her  lips  on  his  in  a  long  kiss  —  a 
benediction  from  his  mother,  is  her  specious  name 
for  it  —  the  first  kiss  of  love. 

Parsifal  starts  up  in  intense  terror,  pressing  his 
hand  to  his  heart  as  if  in  agony.  He  bursts  out 
in  an  apostrophe  to  Amfortas:  the  spear- wound, 
he  feels  it  burning  and  bleeding  in  his  own  heart; 
love's  delirium  seizes  his  senses  with  sinful  long- 
ings.    Then   he    sees   the   image   of   the    Grail, 

[^7] 


A  Guide  to  Parsifal 

throws  himself  upon  his  knees,  calls  upon  the 
Saviour,  the  Lord.  From  Kundry's  kiss  he  has 
received  enlightenment ;  he  understands  all  now  — 
the  cause  of  the  king's  downfall,  the  baleful  re- 
sults wrought  by  his  sin.  He  spurns  the  en- 
chantress from  him,  bidding  her  begone.  Kun- 
dry,  bewildered  and  beseeching,  asks  him 

So  hath  then  my  kiss 
With  world-wide  vision  endowed  thee  ? 
If  my  full  love  should  embrace  thee 
Surely  to  godhead  'twould  raise  thee. 

Parsifal  offers  her  love  and  redemption  if  she 
will  but  show  him  the  way  to  Amfortas  —  the 
pure  love  that  leads  to  redemption.  In  rage  Kun- 
dry  declares  that  he  shall  never  find  the  way;  and 
that  the  curse  of  Christ  that  once  punished  her  for 
laughter,  gives  her  might  —  once  again  she  pleads 
for  a  single  hour  in  his  embrace,  then  the  path- 
way he  shall  find.  "Begone,  unhappy  woman!" 
is  Parsifal's  only  reply.  Kundry  in  a  wild  frenzy 
calls  out  for  all  the  pathways  to  be  barred;  cries 
to  Klingsor  for  help,  curses  all  the  roads  that  Par- 
sifal may  travel,  and  bans  his  search  for  Amfortas : 

For  fiedst  thou  from  hence  and  foundest 

All  the  ways  of  the  world, 

The  one  that  thou  seek'st 

That  pathway  ne'er  shalt  thou  find 

Here  —  I  curse  them  to  thee : 

Wander,  wander  1  — 

Thou  whom  I  trust, 
Thee  will  I  give  as  his  guide ! 

With  these  words  she  delivers  him  over  to  the 
tender   mercies    of   Klingsor.     Klingsor   appears 

[.8] 


The  Story  of  Wagner's  Parsifal 

upon  the  castle  wall  with  the  sacred  lance  of 
which  he  robbed  Amfortas.  He  hurls  it  at  the 
youth;  but  the  holy  weapon  stops,  poised  harm- 
lessly above  his  head.  Parsifal  grasps  it,  makes 
the  sign  of  the  cross  with  it,  and  Klingsor  and  all 
his  works  disappear,  the  castle  crashing  to  ruins, 
the  garden  withering  to  a  desert,  the  damsels  lying 
as  shrivelled  flowers  upon  the  ground.  Parsifal 
mounts  the  garden  wall  again  and  disappears, 
turning  to  the  prostrate  Kundry  with  the  words: 

Thou  kno^Yest 
Where  only  we  shall  meet  again. 

With  the  parting  of  the  curtain  upon  the  third 
act,  we  are  again  in  the  Grail's  domain,  amid  a 
flowery  meadow  in  springtime.     It  is  Good  Fri- 
day.    Years  have  passed.     Gurnemanz,  now  very 
old,  emerges  from  a  hermit's  hut.     He  sees  Kun- "A 
dry  rigid,  almost  lifeless,  in  a  thicket;  drags  her 
out,  restores  her  to  consciousness  and  strength.    ] 
She  is  again  the  penitent  Grail  servant,  pale,  sad,    ! 
with  flowing  black  hair  and  a  rough  brown  robe. 
With  the  one  word  "service  —  service!"  she  sets   i 
about    her    self-appointed    tasks.     Now    emerges  7 
from  the  neighboring  wood  a  stranger  knight,  clad 
in  black  armor,  his  helmet  closed,  his  spear  low- 
ered,  advancing  slowly  with  bowed  head.     Re- 
sponding not  at  all  to  Gurnemanz' s  greeting,  he 
lays  down  his  arms  and  silently  prays  before  them. 
Gurnemanz  recognizes  him  as  the  fool  whom  once 
he  dismissed  in  anger  from  the  Castle  of  the  Grail; 
he  recognizes  the  spear;  he  presages  the  coming 
of   the   long-hoped-for   deliverer.      Parsifal   rises 

[^9] 


A  Guide  to   Parsifal 

from  his  prayer,  greets  Gurnemanz  with  gratitude 
to  heaven  that  he  has  found  him  again.  He  tells 
him  of  his  many  experiences,  of  his  ardent  desire 
to  find  again  the  Grail  and  the  suffering  king. 
Long  has  he  wandered  through  error  and  suffer- 
ing, and  now  a  new  hope  comes  to  him  that  he 
has  reached  his  goal  —  or  is  it  a  new  deception  ? 
All  is  changed,  he  thinks,  in  those  domains.  His 
way  lies  toward  him  whose  sore  lament  he  once 
listened  to,  an  awestruck  fool;  him  for  whose 
healing  he  deems  himself  ordained;  but  always 
has  the  wished -for  path  been  denied  him.  He 
has  wandered  blindly,  driven  ever  onward  by 
Kundry's  curse  through  countless  distresses,  bat- 
tles and  conflicts,  and  away  from  the  true  road, 
though  well  he  knew  it,  his  main  care  being  to 
keep  inviolate  and  undefiled  the  sacred  lance  that 
has  come  into  his  keeping  —  for  that  which  gleams 
and  glows  before  him  is  none  other  than  the  Grail's 
holy  spear. 

Gurnemanz  bursts  out  into  an  ejaculation  of 
wonder  and  thanksgiving;  then  he  narrates  how 
Amfortas  has  refused  to  perform  his  office  of  Grail 
Warder  and  exhibit  the  sacred  vessel  to  the  knights, 
hoping  thereby  to  end  his  agony  with  his  life.  The 
holy  meal  is  denied  them,  and  "common  viands 
must  content  them."  Their  strength  has  wasted, 
and  no  longer  is  the  spiritless,  headless  band  sum- 
moned to  holy  warfare.  Titurel,  deprived  of  the 
Grail's  sustaining  power,  is  dead;  Gurnemanz 
himself  has  hidden  in  the  wood,  waiting  for  his 
time  to  come. 

Hearing  these  things,  Parsifal  bursts  out  into 

[3°] 


The  Story  of  Wagner's   Parsifal 

passionate  self-reproach  as  being  himself  the  cause 
of  all  this  woe,  and  is  like  to  sink  into  unconscious- 
ness, but  for  Gurnemanz's  support  and  the  water 
that  Kundry  brings  to  sprinkle  his  face.  Shall  he 
be  guided  straight  to  Amfortas?  asks  Parsifal. 
Yes,  is  Gurnemanz's  reply;  for  that  day  they  are 
summoned  to  the  castle  for  the  obsequies  of  Titu- 
rel;  and  once  more  then  the  Grail  will  be  uncov- 
ered —  Amfortas  will  again  fulfil  his  long  neg- 
lected office  to  sanctify  his  sovereign  father  and 
to  expiate  his  own  sin.  Gurnemanz  leads  Parsi- 
fal to  the  edge  of  a  spring,  and,  with  Kundry,  re- 
moves his  armor;  and  after  Kundry  has  bathed 
hisjeet,  dips  water  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand  and 
^rinkles  the  knight's  head,  blessing  him.  In  the 
meantime  Kundry  draws  a  golden  flask  of  oint- 
ment from  her  bosom,  anoints  Parsifal's  feet  and 
wipes  them  with  her  hair.  Gurnemanz  takes  the 
flask  and  anoints  his  head,  proclaiming  him  king. 
Parsifal  fulfills  his  first  duty  by  baptizing  Kundry 
and  bidding  her  believe  on  the  Redeemer.  Her 
curse  is  broken,  and  she  weeps  bitterly. 

Turning  around,  Parsifal  gazes  with  gentle  rap- 
ture on  the  woods  and  fields,  remarking  upon  their 
beauty.  It  is  Good  Friday's  spell,  answers  Gur- 
nemanz; the  tears  of  repentant  sinners  sprinkle 
them  with  holy  moisture  and  bless  them. 

Gurnemanz  then  craves  leave  to  lead  Parsifal 
to  the  Grail  Castle,  after  dressing  him  in  the 
mantle  of  the  Grail  knights.  The  three  set  out 
together.  Again  ''space  is  changed  to  time,"  and 
they  are  translated  through  the  intervening  dis- 
tance with  scarce  a  movement.     They  come  to  the 

[31] 


A  Guide  to  Parsifal 

great  hall  of  the  castle  as  before,  amid  the  pealing 
of  the  bells;  see  the  knights  enter,  bearing  Titu- 
rel's  corpse  upon  a  bier;  see  Amfortas  brought  in 
upon  a  litter.  There  are  this  time  no  tables  set 
for  the  holy  meal.  Again  Amfortas  is  called  upon 
to  uncover  the  Grail,  but  he  refuses,  and  tearing 
open  his  wound,  summons  them  to  plunge  their 
swords  into  it,  deep,  to  the  hilt,  to  end  his  suffering. 
Thereupon  advances  Parsifal  with  the  out- 
stretched spear  touching  Amfortas' s  side  with 
the  point  and  saying: 

One  weapon  only  serves: 

The  one  that  struck 

Can  staunch  thy  wounded  side. 

Amfortas,  healed,  is  irradiated  with  holy  rap- 
ture. Parsifal  announces  his  kingship,  as  the  one 
foretold  by  the  oracle,  the  Guileless  Fool  enlight- 
ened by  pity.  He  stretches  forth  the  spear,  the 
point  glowing  with  rosy  light.  He  uncovers  the 
Grail  and  holds  it  aloft;  it,  too,  is  illumined  by 
the  crimson  radiance  as  before.  A  flood  of  light 
is  poured  from  above,  and  a  white  dove  flutters 
down,  poising  itself  above  his  head.  Kundry, 
gazing  at  him,  sinks  lifeless  to  the  ground.  In 
soft  voices  all  proclaim: 

Wondrous  work  of  mercy: 
Redemption  to  the  Redeemer. 

THE  CHARACTERS  OF  THE  DRAMA 

The  character  of  Parsifal  is  depicted  in  broad 
and  unmistakable  lines  in  Wagner's  drama;  but 
there  are  innumerable  subtle  touches  by  which  its 

[3^] 


The  Story  of  Wagner's   Parsifal 

details  are  accentuated.  Of  knightly  birth,  he 
has  been  brought  up  in  a  way  effectively  to  keep 
him  from  the  knowledge,  the  savoir  jaire,  the 
point  of  view  of  his  class.  He  is  a  simpleton, 
truly,  in  his  profound  ignorance  of  all  the  world 
holds.  He  is  uncouth,  untaught  in  the  ways  of 
men,  and  so  presents  himself  at  the  outset.  He 
is  ignorant  of  the  law,  as  of  all  else,  and  hence 
of  sin;  a  creature  of  undisciplined  impulse.  He 
shares  not  at  all  in  Gurnemanz's  horror  at  the 
killing  of  animals:  ''For  sure  he  killed  the  swan 
—  whatever  goes  flying  he  hits;"  and  there  speaks 
the  young  w^ood-roving  barbarian.  He  is  igno- 
rant even  of  the  difference  between  good  and  evil 
till  Kundry  tells  him  that  the  giants  and  caitiffs 
who  attacked  him  were  evil,  and  Gurnemanz  that 
his  mother  was  good.  Kundry' s  sneering  and 
abrupt  revelation  to  him  of  his  mother's  death 
rouses  in  him  first  an  unthinking  fury  against  the 
bearer  of  the  ill  tidings  as  the  cause  of  them.  His 
mental  processes  are  as  those  of  a  child.  But  he 
responds  at  once  to  the  first  appeal  to  pity.  Gur- 
nemanz's  demonstration  of  the  heinousness  of  his 
sin  in  killing  a  harmless  wild  swan  causes  in  him 
a  complete  revulsion  of  feeling,  as  he  breaks  his 
bow  and  casts  it  away.  Thus  appears  at  the  very 
outset  the  first  indication  of  the  cardinal  trait  of 
his  character.  His  mother's  death  comes  to  him 
as  the  first  experience  of  the  sad  reality  of  sorrow. 
On  hearing  Amfortas's  cry  of  agony  before  the 
Grail,  Parsifal  clutches  violently  at  his  heart;  but 
this  new  experience  of  pity,  unnoted  by  Gurne- 
manz, has  left  him  speechless;  he  has  no  words  to 

[33] 


A   Guide  to   Parsifal 

voice  his  new  sensation  to  the  knight  who  sees 
only  what  is  on  the  surface,  and  indignantly  spurns 
him  in  his  disappointment.  His  emotions  when 
beset  by  the  flower  maidens  are  those  only  of 
amusement  and  of  annoyance  at  their  importuni- 
ties. He  does  not  understand  them.  Kundry's 
first  utterance  of  his  name  revives  the  recollec- 
tion of  how  his  mother  called  him,  the  remem- 
brance of  the  one  love,  the  one  tenderness  he  has 
known;  and  at  the  same  time  his  remorse  is  kin- 
dled at  his  forgetfulness  and  senseless  folly. 
Through  that  tenderness  and  that  remorse,  Kun- 
dry  works  to  awaken  him  to  pity,  and  seeks  to 
lead  him  on  thereby  to  passionate  love.  The 
mingling  of  carnal  temptation  with  the  purity  of 
filial  love  is  distasteful,  and  has  been  much  criti- 
cised, but  it  is  a  bold  conception  and  masterfully 
carried  out.  The  awakened  pity  brings  results 
different  from  Kundry's  anticipation.  It  brings 
full  enlightenment,  the  complete  development  of 
w^hat  has  been  germinating  in  his  soul  under  our 
eyes.  It  brings  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  and 
of  the  inevitable  consequences  of  the  sin  to  which 
Kundry  invites  him.  As  he  struggles  wdth  the 
storm  of  sinful  emotions  that  rages  within  him,  all 
is  revealed  to  him  at  once  —  the  sin  of  Amfortas, 
the  cause  of  his  agony,  the  personal  responsibility 
of  the  sinner,  the  guise  in  which  temptation  came. 
He  sees  the  sacred  cup,  and  he  feels  the  "thrill  of 
redemption's  rapture."  All  he  thinks  of  is  to 
rescue  and  to  save.  At  last  the  guileless  fool  has 
come  into  birthright  of  his  soul,  fullness  of  knowl- 
edge,  of  pity,   of  renunciation.     His  adventures 

[34] 


The  Story  of  Wagner's  Parsifal 

thereafter,  prove  and  confirm  his  right  to  the  title 
that  is  awaiting  him  in  the  Castle  of  the  Grail. 
Through  error  and  suffering  lies  his  pathway 
thither.  His  attainment  of  the  good  means  re- 
nunciation of  sensual  delight,  a  conquest  of  the 
most  formidable  forces  of  evil  that  beset  men's 
souls.  He  tastes  of  bitterness,  battles  continu- 
ously for  the  right,  toils  for  the  triumph  of  the 
right  in  the  fulfillment  of  a  high  and  heaven-sent 
mission.  He  comes  again  to  the  Grail  Castle  as 
one  cleansed  by  fire  and  suffering. 

In  Kundry,  Wagner  has  drawn  one  of  the  sub- 
tlest and  most  complex  characters  of  dramatic  lit- 
erature.    In  the  reality  of  her  nature,  in  its  es- 
sence, she  has  little  to  do  with  the  characters  upon 
which  he  modelled  herein  the  old  legends;  but  ia, 
her  outward  form  she  is  an  amalgamation  of  fig- 
ures in  Chretien's  and  Wolfram's  recitals.     From- 
her  own  words  we  learn  that  she  is  a  woman  who 
had  mocked  the  Saviour  as  He  carried  the  burden 
of  the  cross  to  Calvary  and  was  condemned  there- , 
for  to  endless  wandering  and   to   endless   laugh- 
ter, a  kind  of  Wandering  Jewess.     Klingsor  calls j 
her  Nameless  Woman,  primeval  She-Devil,  Rose 
of  Hell,  Herodias  once,  Gundryggia  the  Valkyrie^ 
once,  now  Kundry.     Gurnemanz  suggests  that  as 
the  wild  and  sullen  messenger  of  the  Grail  she 
may  be  atoning  for  sins  in  some  former  life.     She, 
is  thus,  through  a  suggestion  of  the  Buddhisticj 
philosophy,  a  reincarnation  of  many  strange  ele- 
ments of  wickedness  and  lust.     She  lives  a  life^f 
sin,  and  a  life  of  repentance.     She  seeks  salvation./ 
by  serving  the  Grail,  and  doing  works  of  penance; 

[35] 


"> 


A  Guide  to  Parsifal 

[she  is  filled  with  a  longing  to  meet  again  a  com- 
passionate being  who  shall  release  her  from  her 
torment  by  the  power  of  redeeming  love.  But 
iher  sin  always  rises  up  to  thwart  her;  for  through 
'it  she  is  subject  to  the  thrall  of  Klingsor's  magic, 
and  when  this  is  upon  her  she  is  the  unwilling  in- 
I  strument  for  the  seduction  of  men ;  unwilling  — 
yet  when  this  side  of  her  nature  is  incarnate,  she 
is  of  insensate  lust,  and  seeks  through  the  unholi^ 
est  means  to  gain  the  love  that  she  hopes  will  be 
her  salvation.  Struggle  against  this  magic  thrall 
as  she  will,  she  must  always  yield,  when  the  time 
comes  for  her  to  yield.  The  tragedy  of  her  ex- 
istence is  solved  by  the  strength  and  the  all-em- 
bracing compassion  of  Parsifal.  In  her  different 
guises  she  presents  a  strangely  diverse  figure.  In 
the  first  act  she  is  a  wild  creature  with  eyes  now 
blazing  fierily,  now  fixed  and  dull,  roughly  clad, 
rude  and  abrupt  in  speech,  yet  devoted  to  the 
service  of  the  Grail  and  its  king.  She  struggles  in^ 
fearful  agony  and  with  blood-curdling  shrieks  to 
resist  Klingsor  as  he  conjures  her  for  his  evil  pur- 
poses, taunts  him  fiercely  as  he  boasts  of  the 
cause  of  his  power  over  her;  but  all  her  struggles 
are  vain.  When  she  reappears  in  the  guise  of  the 
Temptress  in  the  magic  garden,  it  is  with  all  the 
conviction,  all  the  equipment  of  the  accomplished 
wanton.  At  first  she  reckons  only  upon  a  kind  of 
;Shy  embarrassment  on  the  part  of  the  innocent 
/  youth.  But  when  her  kiss  kindles  in  him  the  fire 
/  of  sensual  desire,  it  also  reveals  to  him  the  mean- 
ing and  the  consequences  of  it.  To  Kundry's 
•  astonishment  he  repulses  her;  her  feelings  change 

[36] 


The  Story  of  Wagner's   Parsifal 

to  yearning  and  admiration  for  him;  she  bethinks 
herself  of  her  own  need  for  pity,  she  desires  him 
for  herself  and  her  own  salvation,  and  puts  her 
entreaties  to  him  on  that  ground.  She  pleads  for 
only  one  hour  in  his  embraces  —  so  she  shall  gain 
redemption  and  deliverance  from  her  curse.  She" 
is  now  herself,  not  Klingsor's  tool,  and  is  putting 
forth  her  temptations  on  her  own  behoof.  But 
Parsifal  knows  that  that  way  damnation  lies.  To 
help  her  he  is  also  sent;  but  he  knows  that  help 
cannot  come  from  the  source  that  is  the  cause  of 
her  condemnation: 

The  new  life  that  shall  thee  deliver 
Think  not  thy  sorrow's  fount  may  yield  — 
Salvation  can  thy  heart  know  never 
Until  that  fount  to  thee  is  sealed. 

In  the  third  act  Kundry  takes  on  still  another 
character;  that  of  the  grave,  silent  penitent,  yearn- 
ing, with  suffering  imprinted  on  her  face,  for  the 
opportunity  to  serve,  speaking  only  the  one  word 
^'service,"  and  going  tranquilly  about  the  duties 
of  a  servant.  Gurnemanz  finds  her  mien  strangely 
altered,  and  rejoices  that  he  has  rescued  her  for 
salvation  from  the  sleep  of  death  in  which  he 
found  her.  Shejs  indeed  ready  for  it,  and  the"^ 
final  scene  of  the  drama  is  but  the  completion  of 
the  work  begun  by  Parsifal  through  his  resistance 
to  her  wiles.  Tearless  she  is,  till  he  baptizes  her,- 
and  thereby  breaks  the  curse  that  has  so  long— 
held  her  in  its  ban;  and  then  is  fulfilled  the  re- 
demption that  was  begun  upon  her  in  the  magic 
garden. 

[37] 


A  Guide  to  Parsifal 

Gurnemanz  shares  some  of  the  lovableness 
that  Wagner  put  into  that  other  old  man  of  his 
creation,  Hans  Sachs.  He  has  a  touch  of  humor, 
through  his  garrulousness,  his  rugged  strength, 
his  vigorous  uprightness.  There  are  kindliness, 
sympathy,  beneath  his  rough  exterior.  He  is  not 
prescient  nor  far-seeing,  nor  can  his  mind  take 
devious  paths;  but  he  is  all  devotion  to  the  Grail 
and  to  Amfortas.  His  humor  twinkles  through 
his  rough  summons  to  the  sleeping  watchers  at 
the  very  beginning  of  the  drama: 

Hey,  ho,  wood-warders  twain ! 

Sleep-warders  I  call  ye! 

Come,  wake  at  least  with  the  morning! 

When  he  is  questioning  Parsifal  in  vain  to  find 
out  who  he  is,  he  ends  with  the  dry  sarcasm: 

Declare  then  what  thou  knowest: 

Of  something  must  thou  have  knowledge! 

And  when  after  the  disclosure  of  all  the  Grail 
mysteries,  the  youth  has  nothing  to  say  for  him- 
self, not  even  a  question  to  ask,  the  old  man  in 
his  disappointment  pushes  him  rudely  from  the 
castle  with  his  rough  jest : 

Leave  all  our  swans  for  the  future  alone, 
And  seek  thyself,  gander,  a  goose ! 

While  he  is  all  horror  for  the  wickedness  that 
has  been  the  undoing  of  Amfortas,  he  has  a  good 
word  for  Kundry,  whom  the  young  esquires  fear 
and  distrust.  She  has  nothing  in  common  with 
them,  says  Gurnemanz;  but  when  they  need  help 
in  time  of  danger  she  breathes  zeal  through  their 

[38] 


The  Story  of  Wagner's  Parsifal 

ranks;  and  if  she  is  under  a  curse,  it  may  be  that 
she  is  living  there  to  atone  for  sins  unforgiven  in 
her  former  existence  by  serving  the  knights  through 
her  good  actions.  He  does  not  suspect  her  con- 
nection with  Amfortas's  fall,  for  he  even  asks  her 
where  she  was  with  her  help,  when  that  disaster 
befell.  In  the  last  act  his  age  and  sorrow  have 
brought  greater  gentleness  and  a  chastened  spirit. 
His  attitude  toward  Parsifal  is  then  of  devout  ex- 
pectancy, and  even  his  chiding  of  the  helmeted 
knight  for  intruding,  armed,  into  the  Grail's  do- 
main is  of  the  mildest.  Through  that  act  he 
thankfully  takes  the  part  of  the  chosen  agent  to 
consecrate  the  Deliverer  and  to  lead  him  to  the 
ailing  king  whom  he  is  to  supersede. 

Sympathy  for  Amfortas  does  not  spring  from 
the  listener's  heart.  His  suffering  makes  him  an 
egotist,  and  he  is  engrossed  with  it  and  with  the 
longing  for  deliverance  so  long  delayed.  Wagner 
makes  him  speak  with  an  eloquence  of  lamenta- 
tion that  has  few  parallels  in  music;  and  while  the 
music  is  moving,  profoundly  expressive  of  his  cor- 
roding anguish,  he  comes  before  us  as  scarcely 
more  than  the  representative  of  the  effect  of  sin 
upon  man,  the  articulate  utterance  of  humanity's 
rue  and  yearning  for  relief,  a  picture  of  his  kind, 
seared  and  weakened  with  the  consequences  of 
sin.  As  for  his  place  in  the  community  of  the 
Grail  knights,  Wagner  himself  has  written : 

The  significance  of  the  king  of  this  knightly  company 
we  sought  in  the  original  meaning  of  the  word  "King,"  as 
the  head  of  the  community  who  was  chosen  for  the  guard- 
ing of  the  Grail;  he  was  to  be  distinguished  from  the  other 

[39] 


A  Guide  to   Parsifal 

knights  in  nothing  except  the  mystic  importance  of  the  high 
function  attributed  to  him  alone,  as  well  as  his  long  incom- 
prehended  suffering. 

Klingsor,  the  malignant  agency  that  has  brought 
woe  into  the  domain  of  the  Grail,  only  briefly 
appears  in  the  course  of  the  drama  itself;  but  the 
effects  of  his  baleful  power  persist  and  are  felt 
from  the  beginning  till  they  are  annihilated  by 
the  coming  of  Parsifal  at  the  very  end.  He  is  that 
pagan  with  whom  paganism  encroaches  upon  the 
Grail's  domain  —  his  abode  is  "rankest  pagan 
land,"  as  Gurnemanz  tells  the  young  esquires. 
Revenge  and  cupidity  are  his  controlling  motives; 
magic,  working  through  the  basest  means  of  lust 
and  unholy  desires,  his  method.  His  machina- 
tions are  directed  toward  the  capture  of  the  Grail 
for  himself,  through  the  destruction  of  its  guardi- 
ans, and  toward  vengeance  for  his  rejection  from 
the  band  of  the  Grail  Knights,  to  membership  in 
which  he  aspired.  His  malignant,  mocking  na- 
ture is  revealed  in  his  speeches  to  Kundry  at  his 
evocation  of  her  as  he  taunts  her  with  the  wrong 
she  has  wrought  Amfortas  and  with  his  own  power 
over  her,  and  as  he  rages  at  her  own  taunting 
question  as  to  his  chastity.  He  sees  the  oncoming 
of  the  stripling  Parsifal  with  glee,  welcoming  him 
to  his  destruction,  and  he  watches  the  disaster  to 
his  own  knights,  his  castle  guardians,  with  cynical 
indifference,  caring  for  nothing,  not  even  the  de- 
struction of  his  chosen  vassals,  except  the  achieve- 
ment of  his  own  selfish  ends.  But  his  power  van- 
ishes as  a  noxious  mist  before  the  rays  of  the  sun, 
as  Parsifal  turns  upon  him  with  the  rescued  spear. 

[4°] 


Part  III. 

THE    MUSIC 

In  none  of  Wagner's  music  dramas  has  he  car- 
ried out  his  musical  system  with  greater  skill  or 
certainty  of  touch  than  in  ''Parsifal."  In  none 
has  he  exhibited  a  higher  mastery  in  the  fashion- 
ing of  the  musical  texture  from  leading  motives, 
in  the  suggestiveness  and  logical  completeness 
with  which  he  has  done  it,  or  in  the  sonority, 
richness  and  mellowness  of  the  orchestral  garb 
with  which  he  has  clothed  the  score.  In  thematic 
invention  the  "Ring"  dramas  and  "Die  Meister- 
singer"  may  surpass  it;  in  spontaneity  it  stands 
below  "Tristan";  but  the  poetical  beauty  and 
subtlety  of  the  "Parsifal"  music,  the  expressive 
power  with  which  it  interprets  all  the  characters, 
emotions,  sufferings,  aspirations,  that  are  em- 
bodied in  the  drama,  are  surpassed  in  none  other 
of  Wagner's  works.  In  none  of  them  is  the  key 
to  the  understanding  of  all  to  be  sought  so  con- 
tinually in  the  music.  As  Mr.  Newman  has 
pointed  out,  this  wonderful  series  of  tone  pictures 
has  a  veracity  to  which  no  other  musician  could 
ever  have  attained;  his  unrivalled  power  of  con- 
ceiving life  and  character  in  terms  of  music  is 
triumphantly  shown  in  such  figures  as  Parsifal, 
Kundry  and  Amfortas.  It  is  the  purpose  of  the 
present  chapter  to  point  out  the  leading  motives 
by  the  use  of  which  he  has  achieved  these  results. 


A  Guide  to  Parsifal 


I.   THE   PRELUDE 

The  Prelude  is,  as  it  were,  an  initiation  into  the 
sacred  mysteries  of  which  the  drama  is  the  eluci- 
dation. It  at  once  takes  us  into  the  characteris- 
tic mood  and  atmosphere  of  the  play  —  the  mood 
of  solemnity  and  reverential  awe.  It  has  been 
compared  to  the  Prelude  of  ''Lohengrin";  the 
poetic  subjects  of  the  two  have  much  in  common, 
but  there  is  nothing  of  the  passionate  eloquence, 
the  dramatic  intensity,  of  the  ''Lohengrin"  pre- 
lude in  that  of  "Parsifal."  The  difference,  it  has 
been  observed,  resides  in  the  more  epic  treatment 
that  fills  the  prelude  to  "Parsifal"  with  a  con- 
templative calm,  as  well  as  in  the  more  solemn 
subject  of  the  drama. 

Wagner  has  explained  the  fundamental  ideas 
of  this  prelude  in  a  brief  analytical  note  that  he 
prepared  for  a  private  performance  of  it  before 
King  Ludwig  11. ,  at  Munich,  in  1880.     It  is  as 

follows :  ^ 

"  Love  —  Faith  —  Hope  ?  " 
First  theme:  "Love." 

"Take  ye  my  body,  take  my  blood,  in  token  of  our 
love!"  (Repeated  in  faint  whispers  by  angel-voices.) 
"Take  ye  my  blood,  my  body  take,  in  memory  of  me!" 
(Again  repeated  in  whispers.) 

Second  theme:  "Faith." 

Promise  of  redemption  through  faith.  Firmly  and 
stoutly  faith  declares  itself,  exalted,  wilHng  even  in  suffering. 
To  the  promise  renewed  Faith  answers  from  the  dimmest 

^  Richard  Wagner's  Prose  Works,  translated  by  William  Ashton 
Ellis,  vol.  VIIL,  p.  388. 


The   Music 

heights,  as  on  the  pinions  of  the  snow-white  dove,  hovering 
downwards,  usurping  more  and  more  the  hearts  of  men, 
fiUing  the  world,  the  whole  of  nature  with  the  mightiest 
force,  then  glancing  up  again  to  heaven's  vault  as  if  ap- 
peased. But  once  more,  from  out  the  awe  of  soHtude 
throbs  forth  the  cry  of  loving  pity:  the  agony,  the  holy 
sweat  of  OHvet,  the  divine  death  throes  of  Golgotha;  the 
body  pales,  the  blood  flows  forth  and  glows  now  in  the 
chaUce  with  the  heavenly  glow  of  blessing,  shedding  on  all 
that  hves  and  languishes  the  grace  of  ransom  won  by  Love. 
For  him  who,  —  fearful  rue  for  sin  at  heart  —  must  quail 
before  the  godlike  vision  of  the  Grail,  for  Amfortas,  sinful 
keeper  of  the  hahdom,  we  are  made  ready:  will  redemption 
heal  the  gnawing  torments  of  his  soul?  Once  more  we 
hear  the  promise  and  —  we  hope ! 

The  prelude  opens  with  the  motive  of  The  Last 
Supper^  intoned  in  unison  by  the  vioKns  and  wood 
wind  without  accompaniment: 

I.    THE    LAST    SUPPER 


The  solemnity  of  this  motive  at  once  seizes  upon 
the  mind  of  the  listener  and  grips  it  tight.  It  is 
used  frequently  in  the  drama,  symbolizing  the 
association  of  the  Grail  Knights,  the  holy  pur- 
poses for  which  it  exists.  Besides  its  simplicity 
as  an  unaccompanied  melody,  may  be  noted  its 
syncopated  character,  and  its  undetermined  to- 
nality, containing  in  two  contiguous  measures  the 
D  natural  foreign  to  the  key  (A  flat),  in  which  it 
appears,  followed  in  the  next  measure  by  the  D  flat. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  two  fragments  of  this 

[43] 


A  Guide  to   Parsifal 

theme  are  frequently  employed  by  themselves,  the 
first  being  used  as  a  voicing  of  the  Saviour's  cry 
of  anguish,  thus: 

THE    SAVIOUR'S    CRY    OF   ANGUISH 


The  second,  the  clause  immediately  following 
it,  is  the  representative  of  the  sacred  spear,  and  as 
such  is  given  below,  as  Theme  IV. 

Soft  arpeggios  in  the  violins  follow  the  first 
enunciation  of  this  theme;  then  the  theme  is  re- 
peated, to  their  accompaniment,  in  the  higher 
octave.  It  comes  again  in  minor  and  a  minor 
third  higher.  More  soft  arpeggios;  the  second 
theme  then  enters,  the  theme  of  The  Grail',  (page 
4,  system  4)  ^  — 


II.     THE    GRAIL 


only  three  measures  long,  but  rising  in  a  soar- 
ing uplift  of  the  harmony  to  a  forte,  played  upon 
trombones  and  trumpets.  This,  like  the  preced- 
ing, is  frequently  repeated  to  characterize  the  wor- 
ship of  the  Grail,  which  is  one  of  the  corner- 
stones of  the  drama.     There  is  hardly  a  scene  in 

^  The  references  are  to  the  simpUfied  editions  of  the  Piano  Score, 
one  by  Karl  KHnd worth,  the  other  by  Richard  Kleinmichel.  The 
pagination  of  these  is  the  same  up  to  page  206;  separate  indications 
are  given  after  that  point. 

[44] 


The  Music 


which  it  does  not  appear,  and  it  undergoes,  as  is 
so  often  the  case,  numerous  transformations  in 
contour  and  rhythm.  This  theme,  it  may  be 
noted,  is  borrowed  by  Wagner  from  one  of  the 
formulas  for  the  "Amen"  in  the  Cathohc  hturgy 
of  the  court  church  at  Dresden;  and  it  was  also 
borrowed  before  him  by  ]\Iendelssohn  for  use  in 
Ms  "Reformation"  symphony. 

Almost  immediately  comes,  with  all  the  mili- 
tant power  of  the  trombones,  fortissimo,  the  theme 
of  Faith,  a  triumphant  proclamation  like  a  cho- 
rale: (page  4,  system  4). 


±m^ 

1  jM  ^  ^  ]  1 

^:|l,,L<{    1 

^-f— 

JSr  dim 

J         1 

■^  V^>t    » 

«•■« 

A  peculiar  effect  of  insistence,  of  certitude,  is 
given  by  its  repetition  a  minor  third  higher,  in  a 
new  key,  and  then  again  a  minor  third  higher; 
after  which  it  is  continued  wdth  a  following  ca- 
dence and  a  syncopated  movement,  diminuendo, 
ending  on  a  minor  chord,  and  is  further  wrought 
through  a  stately  climax  to  a  final  resting-place 
upon  the  A-flat  major  chord,  pianissimo  (page  5, 
system  5).  Here  closes  the  first  part  of  the  Pre- 
lude. There  is  a  lidit  roll,  as  a  shudder,  upon 
the  kettledrum:  ar^then  begins  an  elaboration 
and  working  out  of  the  theme  of  the  Last  Supper 
in  a  certain  tragic  vein;  an  especial  prominence  is 
given  to  a  portion  of  that  theme  which  is  used 

[45] 


A  Guide  to  Parsifal 

with  reference  to  the  Spear,  here  and  later  in  the 
work.     (Page  6,  5th  system,  and  ist  of  page  7.) 

IV.    THE    SPEAR 


ACT  I. 

With  a  final  repetition  of  the  Last  Supper  theme 
ascending  in  fragments  in  softest  pianissimo  the 
Prelude  ends  on  the  dominant  seventh  chord  of 
A-flat,  and  the  curtain  is  immediately  parted  upon 
the  first  scene  of  the  drama.  We  hear  the  Last 
Supper  theme  blown  in  the  distance  as  a  reveille 
by  wind  instruments  on  the  stage.  After  Gurne- 
manz's  half-humorous  rousing  of  the  sleeping  es- 
quires, the  brass  instruments,  also  distant  upon 
the  stage,  intone  the  Grail  theme,  then  the  Faith 
theme,  as  a  solemn  call  to  prayer,  at  which  all 
kneel  and  bow  in  worship.  A  sort  of  march-like 
theme  is  used  to  indicate  the  Order  of  the  Grail  — 
clearly  derived  directly  from  the  theme  of  Faith, 
and  little  more  than  a  rhythmic  transformation  of 
it.  It  first  appears  when  Gurnemanz  tells  the 
esquires  it  is  time  to  expect  the  king.  (Page  10, 
system  i.) 

CHORUS    OF   THE    GRAIL    KNIGHTS 


r -.     ff^-/| 

i^-^J^ir?! 

'■tf-frffj 

;                    p  gtaec. 

^-i 

ftHV 

TK-^ Wf^ 

^             * 

w                   V 

f'^^r  'P 

'j  ^'^  ^ ' 

[46] 


The   Music 

When  Gurnemanz  sees  the  Htter  of  the  king 
approaching  on  the  way  to  the  bath,  the  motive 
of  Amfortas's  suffering  is  announced  in  the  or- 
chestra, picturing  Amfortas's  woe  —  a  theme  of 
heaviness,  deriving  much  of  its  significance  from 
its  augmented  interval  and  irregularly  syncopated 
accompaniment.     (Page  lo,  ist  system.) 


V.    AMFORTAS'S    SUFFERING 


As  Gurnemanz  sadly  acknowledges  the  present 
hopelessness  of  relieving  the  king,  we  hear  the 
tones  of  the  ]\iotto  of  Promise  (page  12,  system  i), 
that  later  comes  in  more  complete  form  as  the 
prophecy  is  disclosed,  as  follows:  \J^ 


VI.    MOTTO   OF    PROMISE 


pp    By      pit-y         lighten'd,  the     guileJess        Fool,     wait  for  him, 


my  chosen   tool 


^^ 


,r     ■    I,-  MM 


^ 


Then   comes   the  rush  of  Kundry's  mad   ap-   |      ^ 
proach,    for    which    the    orchestra    presents    two  //^V 
themes.     First,  before  her  appearance,  the  Riding  '-"'  ^ ' 
Motive  (page  13,  system  3),  that  is  later  used  in; 
very  different  connections,   in  the  manner  of  a/ 
description  — as,  for  instance,  when  Parsifal  tells  of 
his  roaming  through  the  forest;  or  when  Kundny 

[47]  ^ 


A   Guide  to   Parsifal 


VII.    KUNDRY'S    RIDING    MOTIVE 


condemns  him  to  endless  wanderings;  or  when  on 
his  return  he  describes  those  wanderings.  It  may, 
however,  for  convenience  be  called  from  the  cir- 
cumstances of  its  first  appearance  by  the  name 
just  affixed  to  it. 

Then,  as  she  emerges,  comes  a  motive  that  is 
^^(A  used  throughout  the  drama  in  connection  with 
;-(-  v^  certain  phases  of  her  character,  her  wildness  and 


ungoverned  impetuosity;  it  contains  the  implica- 
tion of  her  curse,  driving  her  through  the  world 
without  rest,  and  of  her  demoniac  laughter  — 
these  may  be  heard  in  the  furiously  descending 
chromatic  passages  of  minor  thirds  and  semitones, 
through  three  octaves,   as  it  is  employed   here, 

[48] 


The   Music 

though  afterwards  it  is  often  used  in  a  briefer 
compass.  (Page  14,  system  3.)  As  Kundry 
hands  the  vial  to  Amfortas  there  is  heard  a  motive 
in  descending  diatonic  thirds  signifying  Kundry' s 
service  as  a  helpful  messenger  of  the  Grail,  and 
reappearing  in  the  third  act,  where  she  penitently 
comes  forth  again  for  service.  It  may  be  called 
the  motive  of  Kundry' s  service:   (page  15,  system 

2.) 

IX.    KUNDRY'S    SERVICE 


As  a  pendant  and  a  contrast  to  the  distressful 
theme  of  Amfortas' s  suffering  comes  now  the 
motive  that  accompanies  his  contemplation  of  the 
morning  glory  of  the  forest;  it  may  be  called  the 
motive  of  the  Glory  of  the  Dawn:  (page  17,  sys- 
tem 4.) 


X.    THE    GLORY    OF    THE    DAWN 


/\  ^"^                      *                   ^     -^ "                     1       1              '"                 ' — ~~'^~ 

\l<.  J  j     J  ^=^ 

H 1  11  J  J  JIJJ 

\^  ^    j-'i^?^ 

fc 

3'   U„..J,J'  t 

ir-d:^   '' 

r 

3rj.  jj^'^;t-  -^rrffltr 

'^^°^'^  ^ — pJ 

\^V  :^  \  = 

1^ 

[49] 


A  Guide  to   Parsifal 

It  is  employed  with  exquisite  skill  in  the  beauti- 
ful passage  that  follows,  m  connection  with  the 
motive  of  suffering  and  wdth  fragments  of  the 
Faith  theme,  the  motto  of  Promise  and  Kundry's 
themes,  in  elaborating  the  succeeding  scene  be- 
tween Amfortas,  Gurnemanz  and  Kundry.  (Pages 
17-23.)  The  curious  may  find  here  some  of 
Wagner's  effective  contrapuntal  subtleties,  as  for 
instance  where  Amfortas 's  theme  and  that  of  the 
Glory  of  the  Dawn  are  combined  in  double  canon. 
(Page  23,  system  i,  and  again,  page  34,  system  2.) 

Amfortas  passes  on,  and  Gurnemanz,  left  alone 
with  the  esquires  and  Kundry,  gives  the  long  ex- 
planation of  what  has  gone  before,  setting  forth 
the  dramatic  situation.  In  this  narrative  the 
style  is  remarkably  varied,  and  those  whose  ears 
are  attuned  to  the  art  with  which  Wagner  has 
treated  it,  will  miss  the  tedium  that  many  have 
found  in  it.  All  the  motives  hitherto  mentioned 
appear  in  it  as  a  whole  and  as  fragments,  in  va- 
rious guises  and  various  harmonic  transforma- 
tions. A  study  of  the  text  with  the  music  will 
reveal  the  wonderful  subtlety,  suggestiveness  and 
plasticity  with  which  Wagner  has  interpreted  and 
expounded  the  scene  in  his  music. 

As  Amfortas  proceeds,  the  esquires  begin  their 
suspicious  and  hostile  remarks  about  Kundry. 
^^Are  not  the  very  beasts  here  holy?"  she  asks  in 
answer  to  their  teasing,  and  we  hear  the  Grail 
motive  (page  23,  system  4).  In  Gurnemanz' s  de- 
fence of  her  may  be  noted  the  recurrence  of  the 
theme  of  the  Last  Supper  as  he  speaks  of  her  effort 
to  be  shriven  of  her  sins  (page  27,  system  i),  the 

[50] 


The   Music 

Motto  of  Promise  (system  3)  and  the  Faith  theme 
(system  4).  A  new  theme  enters  as  Gurnemanz 
describes  Titurel's  finding  of  Kundry  in  uncon- 
sciousness, as  the  result  of  the  magic  spell  cast 
upon  her.  It  is  the  theme  of  Sorcery,  as  exercised 
by  Klingsor,  of  very  frequent  recurrence  in  the 
score.  It  consists  of  an  alternately  rising  and 
falling  chromatic  movement  to  chromatic  har- 
monies in  the  bass,  thus  (page  28,  system  3) : 


XI,    MOTIVE    OF    SORCERY 


At  Gurnemanz 's  impassioned  apostrophe  to  the 
''wounding,  wonderful  and  hallowed  spear,"  the 
Saviour's  cry  of  anguish  (from  the  theme  of  the 
Last  Supper)  is  heard  (page  31,  system  i).  The 
return  of  two  of  the  esquires  from  the  lake  inter- 
rupts the  talk  of  the  old  man,  —  we  hear  the  mo- 
tive of  Amfortas's  suffering  as  the  question  is  put 
how  he  fares  (page  34,  system  i).  The  Glory  of 
the  Dawn  is  again  suggested  in  the  answer,  (sys- 
tem 2)  but  the  Suffering  motive  at  once  returns. 
Then  Gurnemanz  goes  on  with  his  narration  of 
how  the  Grail  was  entrusted  to  Titurel  and  how 
disaster  came  to  Amfortas.  This  is  accompanied 
by  a  portion  of  the  Phrase  of  the  Grail  Knights 
(page  35,  system  i),  and  then  by  another  deriva- 
tive from  the  same  theme,  rhythmically  and  har- 
monically modified  (page  35,  system  3,  and  again, 

[5^1 


A  Guide  to  Parsifal 

page  2)^^  system  4).  Still  another  modification 
appears  on  page  37,  system  3,  intertwined  with 
suggestions  of  the  Grail  Theme.  In  the  mean- 
time there  have  been  several  recurrences  of  the 
Theme  of  the  Last  Supper  (page  35,  system  4) 
and  of  the  Grail  Theme. 

Now  comes  the  Klingsor  motive  as  Gurnemanz 
describes  the  magician's  vain  attempts  to  gain 
membership  in  the  knights'  company  (page  38, 
system  2). 

XII.    KLINGSOR 


,.-<' 


p,^     "•"■      When  Gurnemanz  tells  of  Klingsor' s  magic  gar- 
^  c'^  {      den  (page  40,  system  2),  there  are  fragmentary 
^\'^,^  hints,  — no  more  —  of  the  delicious  melody  sung 
%}.  'f    in  the  second  act  by  the  flower  maidens,  and  there 
'Vv      to  be  described  and  quoted.     As  he  finishes  his 
^t      recital  he  quotes  the  Grail's  prophecy  of  the  com- 
''--^^      ing  deliverer  (page  44,  system  2),  and  the  four 
esquires  repeat  it  after  him  —  ''Through  pity  en- 
hghtened  the  Guileless  Fool"  (page  44,  system  3), 
but  they  do  not  finish  it  —  ''Wait  for  him,  my 
chosen  tool;"  they  are  interrupted  by  the  violent 
incursion  of  Parsifal  held  a  prisoner  by  indignant 
knights  who  have  caught  him  red  handed.     With 
his  first  words  is  heard  the  motive  that  is  devoted 
to  him  throughout ;  brilliant,  militant,  full  of  youth- 
ful exuberance  (page  48,  system  2).     A  few  frag- 
ments of  it  have  been  heard  in  the  agitated  music 

[5^] 


The   Music 

that  precedes,  together  with  a  hint  of  the  Swan 
harmonies.     This  is  Parsifal's  theme: 


IJ^I':.     „  1     ^ 

XIII,    PARSIFAL 

, — ^. 

fe^ 

¥^ 

jfi^^ 

^ 

=^^ 
''^ 

^j^  ■ 

— 1 

=f^ 

•'  i'  ^M  ^  '    LlT 

f  Ct^i 

D>^-hi 

'^•^^■^i_ 

« 

^ 

y^=i 

Gurnemanz's  reproaches  are  couched  in  musi- 
cal terms  of  great  tenderness  and  beauty.  In 
them  we  hear  the  curiously  characteristic  har- 
monies of  the  swan  as  they  occur  in  "Lohengrin,"  ^ 
—  here  enwrapped  in  the  arpeggios  of  harps  and 
violins  but  plainly  discernible  as  based  on  the  fol- 
lowing forms  (page  50,  system  6,  and  page  51, 
systems  i  and  2). 


SWAN    HARMONIES 


As  Gurnemanz  questions  him  as  to  his  name, 
there  is  the  first  suggestion  of  the  motive  of  Her- 

^  Self  quotation  of  this  sort  \vath  a  deliberate  purpose  is  not  un- 
known to  students  of  Wagner's  works;  they  will  find  Hans  Sachs 
quoting  from  "Tristan  und  Isolde"  in  the  third  act  of  "Die  Meis- 
tersinger  "  —  just  as  they  will  find  Mozart  quoting  from  "Le  Nozze 
di  Figaro,"  in  the  last  act  of  "Don  Giovanni." 

[53] 


A  Guide  to  Parsifal 


zeleide,  his  mother,  who  called  him  many  names 
that  he  cannot  now  recall  (page  54,  system  2). 


XIV.    HERZELEIDE 


nip  dolce 


^ 


Its  tender  strains  accompany  the  first  entrance 
of  compassion  into  this  ignorant  wight's  heart,  as 
later  they  accompany  Kundry's  well  calculated 
assault  upon  his  feelings  in  the  second  act. 

Gurnemanz  escorts  the  young  man  to  the  Grail 
Temple,  and  as  they  proceed,  the  scene  shifts, 
gradually  moving  past  as  ''time  is  changed  to 
space."  This  transformation  is  accompanied  by 
an  indescribably  rich  and  varied  orchestral  pas- 
sage, based  chiefly  on  the  Bell  Theme  —  the  notes 
tolled  by  the  bells  of  the  Grail  Castle  heard  first 
from  afar,  then  louder  and  louder,  as  follows 
(page  63,  system  2) : 


XV.    BELL  THEME 


This  is  elaborated  in  the  accompanying  figure 
thus: 


The  Music 

Many  of  the  other  themes  are  woven  into  this 
tonal  fabric,  especially  the  Grail  Theme.  A  new 
and  important  theme  enters  before  the  great  hall 
is  reached,  a  theme  that  presages  the  scene  of  an- 
guish about  to  be  witnessed  there.  It  is  entitled, 
in  the  thematic  analyses  that  have  the  authority 
of  Wagner  behind  them,  the  theme  of  the  Saviour's 
Lament.  It  is  used,  however,  largely  to  depict 
the  anguish  of  Amfortas  and  his  sufferings,  mental 
and  physical,  resulting  from  his  sin  and  the  hurt 
of  soul  and  body  that  came  to  him  therefrom.  It 
is  a  theme  of  poignant,  searching  quahty,  with 
drastic  dissonances  and  syncopations,  the  very 
embodiment  in  music  of  the  suffering  it  repre- 
sents.    Here  it  is  (page  66,  system  2) : 

XVI.    THE    SAVIOUR'S    LAMENT 


It  forms  the  climax  of  the  orchestral  interlude 
accompanying  the  scenic  transformation.  The 
Bell  Theme  constitutes  still,  however,  the  chief 
substance  of  this  music;  and  to  its  march-like 
rhythm  the  knights  enter  and  take  their  places  at 
the   tables.     The    Grail    Theme   and    the   Faith 

[55] 


A  Guide  to  Parsifal 

Theme  are  also  heard.  The  following  scene  is  of 
unexampled  dramatic  power  and  musical  effect- 
iveness, a  wonderful  and  deeply  impressive  stage 
picture.  The  choral  effects  are  treated  with  the 
subtlest  mastery,  the  climax  being  reached  in  the 
chorus  of  boys'  voices  floating  from  the  topmost 
reaches  of  the  vast  dome  as  in  celestial  harmony. 
The  voicing  of  Amfortas's  woe  reaches  the  high- 
est pitch  of  Wagner's  musical  eloquence;  the  un- 
covering of  the  Grail  and  the  representation  of 
its  sacred  function  are  passages  that  encroach 
upon  the  limits  of  dramatic  impressiveness,  suf- 
fused as  they  are  in  an  atmosphere  of  mystic  re- 
ligious exaltation. 

ACT   II. 

The  emotional  and  ethical  note  is  completely 
changed  in  the  second  act.  The  introduction 
shows  us  the  malignant  workings  of  Klingsor's 
evil  mind;  and  then  we  are  taken  into  the  midst 
of  a  garden  of  musical  delights  such  as  Wagner 
never  surpassed  for  brilliancy,  glow,  insinuating 
rhythm,  and  iridescent  harmonization  of  enticing 
melodies.  Again  the  note  changes,  and  we  are 
shown  a  scene  of  passion,  the  strenuous  clash  of 
two  souls.  The  prelude  represents  Klingsor's  de- 
moniacal malignity  as  he  plies  his  arts  of  wizardry 
in  his  castle,  observing  the  approach  of  Parsifal 
through  his  magic  glass  and  evoking  the  presence 
of  Kundry.  It  is  based  on  the  Klingsor  Theme, 
the  motive  of  Sorcery,  Kundry' s  Theme,  with  a 
suggestion  of  the  theme  of  the  Saviour's  Lament. 

[56] 


The  Music 


In  the  dialogue  which  ensues,  still  more  of  the 
preceding   motives   are   incorporated.     Thus,    as 
Klingsor  speaks  of  the  Fool's  approach  to  his 
magic  tower,  the  Motto  of  Promise  is  momenta- 
rily heard,  and  again  in  various  rhythmic  modi- 
fications; the  motive  of  Amfortas's  suffering  (page 
115,  system  4),  the  Parsifal  theme  (page  119,  sys-^ 
tem  3),  Kundry's  Riding  Motive,  —  here  descrip-    I 
tive  of  Parsifal's  impetuous  onslaught  upon  the    / 
Castle  Guards  (page  120,  system  3).      The  mo-  ,/ 
tive  of  Herzeleide  is  hinted  at  (page  124,  system 
3),  as  Klingsor  refers  to  the  methods  that  Kundry  j  ^ 
is  about  to  employ  upon  the  stripling.  J 

After  the  disappearance  of  the  magic  tower  and 
the  disclosure  of  the  wizard's  fairy  garden,  the 
Parsifal  theme  is  heard,  piano,  as  the  hero  him- 
self gazes  down  upon  it  from  the  wall,  and  a  vari- 
ant of  the  riding  motive  shows  the  confusion  of 
the  Flower  Maidens  at  the  sudden  apparition  of 
the  victorious  youth.  In  various  forms  there  is 
heard  the  Lament  of  the  Flower  Maidens,  above 
which  the  voices  mingle  in  a  chorus  of  complex 
partwriting.  It  is  the  first  of  a  number  of  themes 
relatinor  to  them  and  their  charms  and  trials:  of 


J 


XVII.    LAMENT    OF    THE    FLOWER    MAIDENS 


which  the  basis  is  a  short  chromatic  succession, 
topped  by  ornamental  triplet  figures  in  a  variety 

[57] 


A  Guide  to  Parsifal 

of  forms,  all  of  the  most  entrancing,  melodic 
beauty,  and  brilliant,  shifting  harmony.  All  is  gay, 
jocose,  full  of  animation.  The  excitement  of  the 
maidens  and  the  agitation  of  the  music  gradually 
quiet  down,  as  we  are  led  to  the  central  point  of 
the  scene,  the  concerted  attack  of  the  maidens 
upon  Parsifal's  unthinking  innocence,  as  they 
circle  about  him  singing  their  theme  of  Caressing. 
This  appears  in  several  sections  (page  147,  ist 
system) : 

XVIIa.     THEME   OF    CARESSING 


^,U        f^ 

f> 

0 

,  j  J  iJ    J  J    1     1    1  J 

(b^y  i  -^ 

^t=N=^ 

=H^ 

^     ''> 

r;'    \,i 

^lM^ 

^-i={  — 

-& —  '  r 

— r^ 
— 1 — I- 

— ' — 1 — 

-F — F- 

-1 ^ 

r  T  r 

f-» 

, 

J  1  1 

1      1      ; 

r-^-n^'^^   J 

''    J 

-"^—^ 

-i — ^ 

^=U^ 

^*^ 

1 "    ri!r  1 

The  last  section  of  their  song  is  of  a  tantalizing, 
teasing  expression,  partly  in  enticement,  partly  in 
derision  of  the  young  man  who  fears  women. 


XVIIb. 


^^^y^^ 


r-    f< 


It  is  interesting  to  note  Wagner's  own  comment 
upon  this  scene;  he  desired,  he  said,  the  note  of 

[58] 


The  Music 

caress,  of  childish  naivete,  and  not  at  all  the  ex- 
citing element  of  sensual  allurement  in  it. 

When  Kundry  appears  and  calls  him  by  his 
name,  Parsifal,  then  hearing  it  for  the  first  time 
in  the  course  of  the  drama,  is  reminded  of  his 


XVIIc. 


mother  and  we  hear  the  Herzeleide  motive  (page 
167,  last  system).  The  Motto  of  Promise  is  re- 
peated. The  most  important  feature  of  the  scene 
that  follows  is  Kundry' s  long  narration  to  Parsi- 
fal of  his  own  childhood  with  his  mother  and  her 
grief  at  his  departure.  I^s_purely  lyric,  one  of 
the  few  extended  passages  of  vocal  raeTody  in  the 
drama,  a  passage  of  delicious  tenderness  and 
beauty.  (Page  175,  system  2.)  Its  beginning  is 
thus: 


XVIII.      KUNDRY'S    NARRATIVE 


^ 

,  J  —  K  h' 

^ 

J.  ij  h 

^  1    ,1 

'   ''  r<J!J 

li^-   ^  i'i' 

^r- 

^r^r-r^ 

F^ 

^ 

ifc^ 

A  Guide  to  Parsifal 

The  Herzeleide  motive  appears  in  it  with  a 
sHght  change  of  rhythmic  characteristic  (page  177, 
system  3)  —  and  the  kinship  of  the  two  melodies 
will  at  once  strike  the  listener. 

A  second  section  expresses  Herzeleide' s  grief  at 
her  son's  disappearance.     (Page  178,  system  4.) 


XIX.      HERZELEIDE'S    GRIEF 


ijp<i.  j.mi 

^•J^       .  t;>J     K 

'—  ''■         i    Vmm       I 

-tV^ i 

h*'  '-^J 

J    i           ■ 

^ » ^^;5r ' 

f*      '^ 

^rx 

#^ 

P     ^ ^ 

L-^ 

"r^L^T- 

i^^ 

W^ 

=^^^ 

t^«^ 

This  theme  accompanies  Parsifal's  outburst  of 
remorse  at  his  blind  forgetfulness  (page  180,  sys- 
tem 2),  followed  by  the  Spear  motive  (page  182, 
system  i),  and  the  Kundry  motive  is  suggested 
(system  2  and  the  following).  As  she  urges  him 
to  love,  the  motive  of  Sorcery  is  heard,  and  this, 
preceded  by  the  motive  of  Herzeleide' s  grief,  ac- 
companies the  long  kiss  she  presses  upon  his  lips. 
He  starts  up  in  terror,  and  as  he  feels  the  wound 
of  Amfortas  in  his  heart,  we  hear  the  Spear  mo- 
tive (page  184,  system  2),  and  that  of  Amfortas's 
Suffering  (page  185,  system  i). 

There  is  a  well  marked  division  of  the  scene  at 
this  point.  Now  begin  the  resistance  that  Par- 
sifal makes  to  the  Temptress  and  the  delirious 
passion  of  her  beseeching.  The  Grail  motive 
(page  187,  system  3),  and  the  motive  of  the  Last 
Supper  (system  4)  are  heard,  as  Parsifal's  gaze  is 
fixed  upon  the  Holy  Cup,  and  the  motive  of  the 
Saviour's  Lament  (page  188,  system  2)  follows. 

[60] 


The  Music 


Parsifal  speaks  of  his  "deeds  of  childish  folly" 
(page  189,  system  3),  and  the  Riding  motive 
emerges.  Then  a  new  motive  is  presented;  a 
passionate  theme  in  ascending  chromatics  denotes 
Kundry's  amorous  supplication  (page  190,  sys- 
tem 3): 


XX.     KUNDRY'S    SUPPLICATION 


\lihr  - 1  kTjIB' 

^rfTTjffl 

gi- 

— ■ 

pp 

..J           ;J 

^ 
/> 

^ 

E 

■^    ff  ''  H" 

g^J     j}g 

^ 

pJ 

As  Kundry's  arts  are  proved  vain,  she  attempts 
another  form  of  entreaty;  urging  her  love  upon 
Parsifal  in  a  manner  plaintive  and  resigned,  to 
this  theme.  (Page  193,  system  i ;  page  199,  sys- 
tem 4.) 


XXI.     KUNDRY'S    RESIGNATION 


nfrlnr- 

k  =>=--  s. 

s 

&?+• 

^ 

^n^ 

p^ 

ia 

^ 

*  t>  '''  p 

1     > 

^ 

^~» 

It  appears  first  on  page  199,  system  3.  In  the 
course  of  the  rapid  dialogue  that  follows  we  hear 
the  theme  of  Faith  (page  202,  system  3).  A  remi- 
niscence of  the  Flower  JNIaiden's  siren  song  comes 
as  Kundry  in  wild  ecstasy  recalls  her  kiss  that 
gave  him  his  "world  wide  knowledge"  (page  203, 
system  3).  As  Parsifal  rejects  her  specious  ar- 
guments, his  own  motive  is  for  an  instant  sug- 
gested (page  205,  system  i).     The  Riding  motive 

[61] 


A  Guide  to   Parsifal 

recurs  as  Kundry  summons  the  aid  of  the  Spear 
against  him  (Klind.,  page  207,  system  3;  Klein., 
page  207,  system  2),  and  again  as  she  curses  all 
his  paths  (Klind.,  page  210,  system  i ;  Klein.,  page 
209,  system  3).  As  Klingsor  appears  from  the 
Castle  to  hurl  the  Spear  at  the  victorious  youth, 
fragments  of  the  spear  motive  are  heard,  and  the 
spear  hurtles  from  his  hand  to  a  long  upward 
glissando  upon  the  harp.  A  solemn  proclama- 
tion of  the  Grail  Theme  (Klind.,  page  212,  systems 
I  and  2;  Klein.,  page  211,  system  4;  212,  system 
i)  is  made  as  Parsifal  makes  the  victorious  sign  of 
the  cross.  For  the  last  time  a  faint  echo  of  the 
flower  maidens'  song  is  heard  (Klind.,  page  213, 
system  2;  Klein.,  page  213,  system  4;  214,  system 
i),  and  Parsifal  disappears. 

ACT   III. 

The  prelude  to  the  third  act  announces  that  we 
are  again  brought  to  the  contemplation  of  solemn 
things,  of  sorrow  and  gloom.     The  music  opens 


THEME    OF    DESOLATION 


The   Music 

with  a  new  theme,  the  Theme  of  Desolation,  de- 
picting the  woe  that  has  come  upon  the  Grail 
Knights,  through  the  unwillingness  of  their  chiefs 
to  perform  his  duty.  This  theme  is  followed  by 
a  version  of  Kundry's  Riding  Motive,  now  com- 
pletely transformed  in  spirit,  syncopated  and 
broken  in  form,  suggesting  Parsifal's  weary  wan- 
derings : 

XXIII.     PARSIFAL'S    WANDERINGS 


1 


The  Grail  motive  appears,  in  strange,  distorted 
harmonies,  also  syncopated  (Klind.,  page  214,  last 
system;  Klein.,  page  215,  last  system),  and  as  it 
reaches  a  climax,  Kundry's  motive  is  precipitated 
in  a  rapid  downward  rush.  (Klind.,  page  215, 
system  2;  Klein.,  page  216,  system  2.)  The  Spear 
motive  is  suggested  immediately  thereafter,  and 
the  Motto  of  Promise  appears  in  an  insistent,  en- 
ergetic rhythm,  as  of  a  battle  cry.     (Klind.,  page 

215,  system  3;  Klein.,  page  216,  system  3.)  The 
Klingsor  motive  comes  in  as  an  accompanying 
figure.  The  motive  of  the  Flower  Maidens  is 
heard  very  subdued  and  measured  (Klind.,  page 

216,  system  i;  Klein.,  217,  system  i),  and  the  mo- 
tive of  Sorcery  follows.  The  whole  prelude  may 
be  taken  as  suggesting  Parsifal's  wandering 
through  the  world,  endeavoring  to  bring  the  ful- 
fillment of  the  oracle's  prediction  as  to  his  coming, 

[63] 


A  Guide  to  Parsifal 


thwarted  by  Kundry's  curse,  and  with  the  briefest 
references  to  the  circumstances  under  which  it 
was  uttered.  As  Gurnemanz  drags  Kundry  out 
from  the  thicket  and  summons  her  to  awake  with 
the  spring,  there  are  hints  of  one  of  the  motives  of 
Expiation  (Khnd.,  page  216,  system  4;  Klein.,  217, 
system  4),  to  be  heard  later  (see  No.  xxvi,  b),  and 
a  new  motive  of  joyful  character  breaks  for  the 
first  time  into  the  somber  tone  picture,  expressive 
of  Spring.  (Klind.,  pages  218,  system  i;  Klein., 
page  219,  system  i.) 


XXIV.     SPRING    MOTIVE 


if  I'll '' — '^r~t 

^ 

u^' — ii-'^r 

l,^-     ^h     M 

&"■'!  r       ;^-4 

]:— r-clJ 

ff^^ — H 

^r^frHK 

=: 

iJ  & 

*^  *. 

When  Kundry  is  revived,  she  utters  the  single 
word ''  service  "  — the  only  word  that  passes  her  lips 
in  the  entire  act  —  and  there  sounds  in  the  orches- 
tra the  descending  series  of  thirds  that  speak  of 
her  service,  implicating  also  her  repentance. 
(Klind.,  page  221,  system  i;  Klein.,  page  222,  sys- 
tem I.) 

As  Kundry  goes  about  her  self-appointed  tasks 
we  hear  premonitions,  in  a  broken  and  synco- 
pated form,  of  a  motive  soon  to  come  in  radiant 
beauty  (the  motive  representing  Good  Friday). 
(Kl'jid.j  page  222,  system  2;  Klein.,  223,  system 
2.)  Parsifal  approaches  and  his  motive  is  sol- 
emnly intoned  in  gloomy  minor  harmonies,  be- 
fitting his  somber  spirit.  (Klind.,  page  222,  last 
system;  Klein.,  page  224,  first  system.)     Gurne- 

[64] 


The   Music 

manz  summons  the  wanderer  to  lay  off  his  armor 
in  deference  to  the  sacredness  of  the  spot  and  of 
the  day,  and  we  hear  the  Grail  motive,  the  Spear, 
fragments  of  the  theme  of  the  Last  Supper,  the 
motive  of  Desolation,  and  as  Parsifal  engages  in 
the  adoration  of  the  spear  we  hear  the  Spear  mo- 
tive (Klind.,  page  226,  system  3;  Klein.,  page  227, 
system  3),  the  Last  Supper  theme,  the  Motto  of 
Promise  (Klind.,  page  227,  system  3;  Klein.,  page 
228,  system  3),  the  Saviour's  Complaint  (Khnd., 

228,  system  i ;  Klein.,  228,  system  4),  and  again  the 
Grail.  Parsifal's  narration  is  accompanied  by 
many  familiar  themes,  among  them  prominently, 
the  Glory  of  the  Dawn  (Klind.,  page  229,  system 
2;  Klein.,  page  230,  system  2),  the  motive  of  his 
Wandering  (Klind.,  page  229,  system  i ;  Klein., 
page  229,  system  4),  Amfortas's  Suffering  (Klind., 

229,  system  4;  Klein.,  230,  system  4),  and  hints  of 
the  Good  Friday  music.  Gurnemanz's  response, 
telling  of  the  woes  of  the  Grail  community,  brings 
out  the  rhythmically  altered  version  of  the  Faith 
theme  that  has  been  heard  before  (Klind.,  236, 
system  3;  Klein.,  page  237,  system  3).  As  he 
speaks  of  the  inactivity  of  the  knights,  now  no 
more  summoned  to  holy  warfare,  the  march-like 
theme  of  the  bells  is  heard  (Klind.,  235,  system  3; 
Klein.,  236,  system  3).  Through  the  whole,  the 
theme  of  Desolation  frequently  recurs  in  an  ab- 
breviated form.  A  new  theme  enters  as  Gurne- 
manz  speaks  of  the  Spring  whose  water  is  to  re- 
fresh the  pilgrim.  (Klind.,  page  239,  system  i; 
Klein.,  page  240,  system  i.)  It  is  called  the  motto 
of  Benediction : 

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A  Guide  to  Parsifal 


XXV.     MOTTO   OF    BENEDICTION 


■  This  recurs  as  Kundry  bathes  his  feet,  as  Gur- 
nemanz  blesses  him  with  water  from  the  spring, 
as  Kundry  anoints  his  feet  with  ointment,  and  as 
Parsifal  baptizes  Kundry.  Then  come  the  ^lo- 
tives  of  Expiation.     (Klind.,  page  239,  system  3; 

XXVI.     MOTIVES    OF    EXPIATION 


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H  ^^ 

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Klein.,  page  24,  system  3.)  Gurnemanz  an- 
nounces to  Parsifal  that  the  castle  waits  upon 
them  to  attend  the  funeral  of  Titurel,  and  we 
hear  march-like  funeral  music  that  later  accom- 

[66] 


The   Music 

parties  the  three  in  their  progress  thither.    (Khnd., 
page  240,  system  2;  Klein.,  page  241,  system  2.) 

XXVII,     FUNERAL   CHORUS 


After  his  baptism  of  Kundry  —  followed  by  the 
Faith  motive  in  tender  accents  —  Parsifal  turns  to 
gaze  on  the  radiant  fields  bathed  in  the  morning 
light  of  Springtime;  and  Gurnemanz  explains  to 
him  the  wonder  of  the  blooming  flowers  by  tell- 
ing him  what  day  it  is;  what  he  sees  is  the  spell  of 
Good  Friday.  The  scene  is  the  occasion  for  an 
extended   tonal   poem   in   the   orchestra,    accom- 


XXVII 
Dolcigstmo  ed  enpresmvo 


GOOD    FRIDAY    SPELL 


panying  the  dialogue,  of  magical  lyric  beauty.  It 
introduces  still  another  theme,  that  of  the  Good 
Friday  Spell.  (Klind.,  page  245,  system  4;  Klein., 
246,  system  4.)     In  this  tonal  picture  are  blended 

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A   Guide  to  Parsifal 

the  Expiation  motives,  and  others  that  have  been 
made  more  famihar  by  frequent  repetition.  They 
are  treated  with  the  most  exquisite  dehcacy  and 
tenderness;  and  the  long  passage  is  one  of  the 
most  perfectly  beautiful  and  expressive  in  the 
whole  work,  as  it  is  one  of  the  most  famous  and 
one  of  those  most  often  played  as  a  concert  ex- 
cerpt. Only  in  its  place  upon  the  stage,  however, 
can  it  ever  have  its  complete  effect. 

The  three  then  set  out  for  the  Castle.  The  Bell 
motive  booms  in  the  distance  (Klind.,  page  253, 
system  2;  Klein.,  254,  system  2).  The  bass  figure 
of  the  chorus  is  combined  with  it,  rolling  on  with 
its  insistent  rhythm  and  recurring  intervals  in- 
cessantly repeated.  The  theme  of  Parsifal  is  pro- 
claimed majestically  and  the  motive  of  Herze- 
leide's  Grief  is  again  and  again  repeated  above  it. 
(Klind.,  page  254,  system  2;  Klein.,  page  255,  sys- 
tem 2.)  The  Motive  of  Desolation  reappears, 
and  the  whole  orchestral  force  is  engaged  upon 
this  gloomy  and  strikingly  imposing  movement 
that  accompanies  the  scenic  transformation,  sim- 
ilar to  that  of  the  first  act,  but  here  carried  out  as 
an  even  more  grandiose  and  impressive  musical 
commentary. 

Transported  to  the  Castle  of  the  Grail,  we  hear 
the  knights  singing  again  as  they  enter,  but  this 
time  music  of  a  more  somber  cast,  as  the  body  of 
Titurel  is  brought  in  upon  the  bier.  Amfortas's 
long  and  poignantly  impassioned  lament  is  a 
superb  example  of  Wagner's  eloquence  in  musical 
declamation.  It  is  accompanied  by  themes  well 
known.   A  new  motive  is  brought  in  (Klind.,  page 

[68] 


The   Music 


261,  system  2;  Klein.,  page  263,  system  2),  after 
the  theme  of  Amfortas's  Suffering  has  been  briefly, 
but  pointedly  suggested;  thus,  as  if  a  Holy  Salute 
for  Titurel. 


XXIX.     HOLY    SALUTE    FOR    TITUREL 


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J.    h-|     K' 

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J-^ 

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k^ 

^r — ^-^-* — 

The  further  progress  of  Amfortas's  monologue 
shows  us  a  modification  of  the  second  Herzeleide 
motive,  among  others  (as  in  Klind.,  page  263,  sys- 
tem i;  Klein.,  page  265,  system  i).  The  Suffering 
motive  returns,  and  Amfortas's  words  rise  to  the 
highest  pitch  of  tragic  vehemence  that  knows  no 
hope.  Then  appears  Parsifal,  stretching  forth  the 
spear  and  healing  the  sinner  —  the  Grail  motive 
first  solemnly  sounds  forth,  followed  by  the  Spear 
motive  and  then  the  motive  of  Amfortas's  suffer- 
ing, softened  and  dignified  as  though  by  the  com- 
ing of  the  new  king  and  his  power  of  healing.  In 
a  magnificent  outburst  the  orchestra  proclaims 
Parsifal's  theme.  He  holds  up  the  spear  with  its 
glowing  point  and  the  theme  of  the  Last  Supper 
is  heard,  followed  by  an  altered  form  of  the  Faith 
theme  and  the  Spear  motive.  As  Parsifal  ascends 
the  altar  and  uncovers  the  Grail  we  hear  the  mo- 
tives of  the  Grail  and  of  Faith,  with  lambent  harp 
tones  flickering  about  them.  The  chorus  softly 
chants,  to  the  Motto  of  Promise,  the  words  "Re- 
demption to  the  Redeemer,"  continuing  with  the 

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A  Guide  to   Parsifal 

Last  Supper  Theme.  To  the  voices  of  the  knights 
are  joined  those  of  the  boys  in  the  extreme  regions 
of  the  dome  —  again  as  if  in  celestial  harmonies 
from  ethereal  spheres. 


[70] 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Maurice  Kufferath:  The  Parsifal  of  Richard  Wagner. 

Translated  from  the  French  by  Louise  M.  Henermann. 

New  York,  1904,  Henry  Holt  &  Co. 
Henry  Edward  Krehbiel:    Studies    in    the    Wagnerian 

Drama.     New  York,  1891,  Harper  and  Brothers. 
Henry  T.  Finck:  Wagner  and  His  Works.     New  York, 

1901,  Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 
William  J.  Henderson:  Richard  Wagner,  His  Life  and 

His  Dramas.     New  York,  1901,  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons. 
Jessie  L.  Weston:  The  Legends  of  the  Wagner  Drama. 

New  York,  1903,  Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 
David  Nutt:  Studies  on  the  Legend  of  the  Holy  Grail. 

London,  1888. 
James  Huneker:  Overtones.     New  York,   1904,  Charles 

Scribner's  Sons. 
Ernest  Newman:  A  Study  of  Wagner.     New  York,  1899, 

G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons. 
Howard   Duffield:   Parsifal,   the   Guileless  Fool.     New 

York,  1904,  Dodd,  Mead  &  Co. 
Oliver  Huckel:  Parsifal,  a  Mystical  Drama  by  Richard 

Wagner,  retold  in  the  spirit  of  the  Bayreuth  Interpreta- 
tion.    New  York,  1903,  Thomas  Y.  Crowell  &  Co. 
Hans  von  Wolzogen  (J.  H.  Cornell,  translator).  Thematic 

Guide  through  the  Music  of  Parsifal.     New  York,  1891, 

G.  Schirmer. 
Albert  Heintz  (Constance  Bache,  translator),  Parsifal  by 

Richard   Wagner:   with   sixty-seven   musical  examples. 

London,  n.  d.,  Novello  &  Co. 


[71] 


INDEX  TO  MUSIC   MOTIVES 


PAGB 

Amfortas'  Suffering,  V 47 

Bell  Theme,  XV 54 

Benediction,  Motto  of,  XXV 66 

Chorus  of  the  Grail  Knights 46 

Expiation,  Motives  of,  XXVI 66 

Faith,  III 45 

Funeral  Chorus,  XXVII 67 

Glory  of  the  Dawn,  The,  X 49 

Good  Friday  Spell,  XXVIII 67 

Grail,  The,  II 44 

Herzeleide,  XIV 54 

Herzeleide's  Grief,  XIX 60 

Holy  Salute  for  Titurel,  XXIX 69 

Klingsor,  XII 52 

KUNDRY,  VIII 48 

Kundry's  Narrative,  XVIII 59 

Kundry's  Resignation,  XXI 61 

Kundry's  Riding  Motive,  VII 48 

Kundry's  Service,  IX 49 

Kundry's  Supplication,  XX 61 

Lament  of  the  Flower  Maidens,  XVII 57 

Last  Supper,  The,  1 43 

Parsifal,  XIII 53 

Parsifal's  Wanderings,  XXIII 63 

Promise,  Motto  of,  VI 47 

Saviour's  Cry  of  Anguish,  The 44 

Saviour's  Lament,  The,  XVI 55 

Sorcery,  Motive  of,  XI 51 

Spear,  The,  IV 46 

Spring  Motive,  XXIV 64 

Swan  Harmonies 53 

Theme  of  Caressing,  XVI la 58 

Theme  of  Desolation,  XXII 62 


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